The Kelbrid Wars
by Shane C
Summary: The Animorphs join up with the Andalites and Taruffs to push the ever-expanding Kelbrid back into their own portion of space, but it's not going well...especially when they find out the Yeerks are involved. If you read, review! Update speed depends on it
1. Prologue

**The Kelbrid Wars**

By Shane-O, aka Sancho

Disclaimer: I don't own nothin' except for this computer, which I'm lucky to have, some T-shirts, a couple pairs of jeans, a half a pack of Camel Lights, and three crème sodas. Definitely not the Animorphs or their little universe. Don't sue me, because I ain't giving up my smokes or my crème sodas.

Author's Note: This is the sequel to The New Dawn. I'm going to try and make this readable for people who haven't read New Dawn, but if you have trouble understanding any of it, reading the New Dawn should clear it up. Actually, if you haven't read my first fic, what the hell are you doing reading this one? Go read the other one and review every chapter! Enjoy!

Prologue

**Ax**

(Fire on the battlecruiser as soon as it's within range! Deploy the fighters in screen formation, and instruct _Benevolent _and _Nova Child _to intercept the enemy fighters!) I commanded my bridge crew aboard the brand-new Dome ship _Fire Flower_. We were trying to push the Kelbrids back towards their own space, but it wasn't going too well.

The Kelbrids, for all their warriors and technology, were quite dumb. They had no grasp on tactics or strategy. That was good news for us – it meant we could win battles even if we were outnumbered. Unfortunately, the amount of ships, fighters, and troops the Kelbrids had arrayed against us was staggering, so sometimes they won through sheer numbers.

It had been a year since I said farewell to my fellow Animorphs on Earth. A very, very long year. My tactics were being printed up in Andalite Training Manuals as fast as I could make them up. I frequently received messages from other Captains and Princes in the Andalite fleet asking for my advice. War heroes who wouldn't have looked at me eight years ago were now asking for my thoughts and suggestions.

The Kelbrids were not the Yeerks. There was nothing subtle about the way they conquered planets. Unlike the Yeerks, they had no interest in enslaving other races. They did it sometimes, but that was only if there weren't enough Kelbrids present to do their hard-labor work. They were very untrusting of other species, and didn't even like employing them in dangerous metal quarries or gas-mining operations.

Our spies had yet to breach all of Kelbrid space, but the initial reports were not encouraging. The Kelbrids had pretty much kept to themselves in their own sector of space, which was blocked from sensor probes by a huge nebula of _Ratitile _meteorite particles, and I'm sure you know the havoc _Ratitile _plays with sensors. Apparently, they weren't interested in war. They were interested in seeing how much they could build and how fast they could do it. The only reason they armed their ships and fought is because they knew, rationally, that other sentients in the galaxy would try and stop them from strip mining every planet they came across. The more planets they took, the more they built, and the more planets they could take. It was a bad cycle that we should have stopped hundreds of years ago.

Their stunning number of spacecraft wouldn't have been a problem if they'd been any number of normal alien races. Andalites, for instance, were able to bear only a few young in a lifetime. It took a lot of time for them to reach maturity. The humans are the same way. There would have been no way for us to fill up the number of ships the Kelbrids did in the short amount of time that they did it.

Our spies _had _found out quite a bit about the insectoid race themselves. The basic instincts of young Kelbrids were not limited to 'Kill, eat, sleep, and follow mother' as they were in so many other species. They were born with the knowledge of how to pilot, how to fight, how to build. Add this to the fact that every Kelbrid female could produce a hundred young every standard year and the young matured in about two years, and you see the problem we faced.

This particular battle, however, was important and totally winable. The Kelbrids only had one battlecruiser present, and even though they had enough firepower to fight a Dome ship to a standstill, they were less maneuverable. Their picket ships, about an eighth of the size of the battlecruisers, were nimble, but only good for attacking starfighters. Their light laser cannons could burn down a small fighter, but wouldn't penetrate Dome ship armor even with sustained fire. They only had two pickets at this particular location in space, halfway in between a planet they'd already settled into and one they desperately wanted.

In addition to their two picket ships and their battlecruiser, they had about fifty or sixty fighters. While they weren't any bigger, more powerful, or better protected than Andalite fighters, their numbers often overwhelmed our pilots. That's why I'd ordered my two other dome ships, _Benevolent _and _Nova Child_, to fire into the approaching fighter formation. Kelbrids often sent their fighters ahead of the rest of the fleet, and then attacked with their bigger ships while the battle was confused, swarming with friendlies and hostiles. By keeping all of the fighters under my command in screen formation around their respective Dome ships, I allowed the Dome ships' main shredders to even the odds between the fighters. Then, when the number of enemy fighters had dwindled to the point where my own pilots could handle them, I'd take the Dome ships in with my own to beat up on the battlecruiser and picket ships. Standard tactics – well, standard _Andalite _tactics, anyway. Kelbrids would never even understand what I'd done…any survivors would just be wondering how we managed to defeat them so easily.

(Communication from the Kelbrid battlecruiser!) Halamor, my very junior communications officer, shouted eagerly. I made a mental note to remind him not to just shout things out on the bridge, especially in the middle of an upcoming battle.

(Ignore it,) I said. (I'll bet you my home scoop that they hate that. Well, wait. On second thought, bring it up. Maybe I can talk him into surrendering to us.) The more senior officers on the bridge crew laughed at my joke, because they knew as well as I did that the Kelbrids did not surrender. The junior officer put the communication through, though, and I shook my head. Yes, I'd definitely have a talk with young Halamor later. For now, though –

"Greeting, Andalite," The bizarre, insectoid creature said, clicking his mandibles. I could see the flashing blue battle lights of the battlecruisers bridge in the background and hear the low _whoo, whoo, whoo _sounds of their strange battle alarms. "Whom am I addressing?"

(Captain Aximili of the _Fire Flower_. Speak quickly so I can enjoy the destruction of your fleet without distraction,) I told him.

"Oh noo, Captain Aximili. I do not want that. Please, power down your weapons so we can talk of more peaceful times." I rolled my eyes – the Kelbrid really _were _stupid, and apparently thought we were as well.

(Certainly, I will. As soon as you power yours down and order your fighters to self-destruct. Now, if you don't have anything else to say, I'll -) I cut myself off as I watched through the viewscreen in disbelief as, in sequence, the rapidly approaching fighters simply exploded. I checked the sensors and saw the the Kelbrid ships had taken their weapons totally off-line. Not just on stand-by – it would take them almost a half an hour to recharge their weapons.

"I have done as you wish, Captain," the nervous-looking Kelbrid said. "Now, if you will ask your ships not to destroy us, I believe we have much to talk about."

Rellatan, my second-in-command, said, (Sir? Your orders?)

(Recall the fighters. Keep the shredders on stand-by. Get six armed commandos to my private shuttle on the double. I should very much like to find out why this particular Kelbrid is so eager to talk.) I walked out of the bridge, the only sound among my stunned crew the _click-clack _of my hoofs as I left the polished, gleaming bridge behind.


	2. Chapter 1 The Fallacy

Chapter 1

**Ax**

(Hull seals are ready, Captain,) my security chief, Dron, informed me. I regarded him steadily and nodded my head in approval. The rest of the commandos were nervous, fidgety…but Dron was the veteran of many battles. He was scarred, but did not cover them with cosmetics as many other vain Andalites did. He wore his scars as medals of bravery. He shouldered his enlarged assault shredder with complete confidence, as if the weapon was an extension of his body.

(Good. Let's go see what this is all about, then,) I told him. He pressed a button on the door of the shuttle, and the red lights went from yellow to green. The door hissed open, and Dron strode into the Kelbrid battlecruiser, shredder sweeping across the hallway. I was right behind him, covering him with my smaller, handheld shredder –

whatever I was expecting, it wasn't the complete absence of Kelbrids. Not even a cleaning bot scurried around the barren hallway. Hidden speakers crackled to life, and the voice of the Kelbrid I'd spoken to aboard the _Fire Flower _filled the ship.

"Prince Aximili, I am pleased you accepted my invitation. I chose not to greet you in person because I thought you might be nervous, and one of your troops might get…antsy…on his or her trigger. I will present myself if you promise my safety."

Dron narrowed his main eyes suspiciously. (I do not like this. He is acting far too clever. Kelbrids do not think of their own personal safety until it's too late.)

I agreed with him, but there wasn't much to be done about it now. We were already aboard the battlecruiser. (Keep your eyes open,) I told him privately. Out loud, I said, (You've given us no reason to distrust you…yet. Show yourself, and you'll not be harmed.)

The airlock door opened, revealing the blocky, function-before-form interior of the Kelbrid ship. A small bot on wheels scurried up to us and beeped. The speakers once again crackled. "This little one will lead you to my audience chamber. Please follow it, and do not be afraid."

Dron looked more suspicious than ever, but said, (It is your call, Prince. I will follow wherever you go, but I must say that I do not like this one bit.)

(Noted, Dron,) I said calmly. I respected his combat instincts as much as my own, but the human nature of curiosity had rubbed off on me. I couldn't turn away now. (I think this could be good for us. This Kelbrid is exceptional. I think we could benefit from a meeting with him.) The little, rodent-like robot beeped twice and whirred down the hallway. Dron and I followed with five battle-trained Andalite commandos behind us.

The corridors were devoid of Kelbrids, although I knew from experience that there were many hidden niches and crannies that the insect-like creatures could hide themselves in to watch us. My stalk eyes scanned the dark portions of the halls for the tell-tale glitter of their compound eyes, but found nothing. The tiny droid stopped at a door and extended a robotic arm into a slot, and it hummed to itself. The door beeped and slid open, and we all walked in.

At a glistening, obsidian table sat three Kelbrids. The middle one, the one I'd spoken to earlier, was about the size of an adolescent Andalite. The other two that flanked him were full-grown Kelbrid warriors. I stiffened, and I saw Dron do the same. We'd both felt what those huge, powerful mandibles and rakish claws could do. The middle Kelbrid stood on its four, chitonous legs and I swear it smiled with its mandibles. "Prince Aximili, please, make yourself comfortable. Do you require food or water? I'm sure I could have it provided."

Despite its hospitable mannerisms, I decided right away that I did not like this creature. It was too eager to gain my trust. We were enemies, and yet it treated me like a friend. (No,) I said coldly. (What I _would _like is a reason that my superior task force shouldn't blow yours out of space.)

If anything, the Kelbrid seemed even more amused. "Well, for starters, I'm sure your ships would never fire upon mine with you aboard." He waved away my unspoken objection with a large claw. "However, I didn't bring you here to argue. I apologize for this, but I must test your willingness to fight the Kelbrid." He clicked out some untranslatable sounds with his large mandible, and the two humongous insects on either side of him flapped their membranous wings until they landed on our side of the table. I looked at Dron frantically as they stalked toward us with their claws out in a combat pose. He looked back at me with more than a bit of confusion on his face as the younger commandos lined up in front of me, protecting me from the upcoming attack. The Kelbrid leader looked on eagerly, and I gave the situation a mental shrug. It's not like they were allies. (Open fire,) I said to my troops.

The high-pitched whine of shredder fire pierced the room, and I shut my eyes against the harsh green glow. When I opened them again, the two Kelbrid warriors were sprawled across the deck, the pieces that were left, anyway. They twitched in their death throes, and the remaining Kelbrid clicked his front claws together in an imitation of applause. "Very good, Andalite. Barely any hesitation."

I pushed a young commando aside and pointed my shredder pistol directly at the remaining Kelbrid's head. (You have a few seconds to explain all of this before I blast you to oblivion and return to my Dome ship to destroy your fleet.) His eyes glittered as he realized that I was totally serious. That was good. I _was _deadly serious.

"I am not a true Kelbrid," he said. My shredder did not waver although my brain was running in circles. "I am a Yeerk. I have infiltrated this far into the Kelbrid hierarchy through sheer brilliance. It's hard to pretend to be as stupid as they are," the Yeerk sneered. "However, I am their equivalent of…well, of you, Aximili. I am a great general to them. Now do you see why I contacted you to negotiate?"

I laughed. I hadn't really caught up to the situation, but I decided that it would be best to keep him off balance, to make him realize that _I _was the one in power, not him. (No, I don't see. All I see is a Yeerk inside of a Kelbrid. Both are my enemies. I could eliminate two _Kafit _birds with one tail-strike.)

To my surprise, he laughed at me. "Relax. I am as disgusted as you are by the thought of our alliance, but believe me, when you hear what I have to say, you will agree upon the monumental importance of this very meeting."

I prepared a witty, cocky retort, but the full impact of what he was saying hit me. '_This is a Yeerk proposing an alliance. He would be just as repulsed by the idea as I am. This is at _least _worth listening to._' I motioned for my troops to relax and put on a false air of relaxation. (Enlighten me, Yeerk,) I told him, as if I didn't have a care in the world.


	3. Chapter 2 The Proposal

Chapter 2

**Ax**

"The Kelbrid are taking over everything," the Yeerk-infested Kelbrid said simply. "This is bad for you and bad for us Yeerks as well."

I laughed. And this Yeerk said the _Kelbrid _were stupid. (You've really put a lot of thought into this, haven't you?) I said in Marco's favorite form of humor – sarcasm.

The mandibles snapped hard and the compound eyes glittered. "Laugh now, while you can. Right now, the Kelbrid are experiencing the most resistance from you Andalites. Your fleet is stretched thin. They've almost got you right where they want you."

I balked. (What are you talking about? We're holding them at bay. They haven't taken a planet in four months.)

The Kelbrid-controller raked his claws on the stone table hard enough to leave gouges. "Please don't tell me you haven't noticed that things are getting easier for you. Less Kelbrid battlecruisers defending their outposts, decreased raids on habitable systems…they're _letting _you push them around. Every time you retake a planet, you have to devote some valuable ships and warriors to guard it."

I narrowed my eyes. The thought _had _occurred to me that things were going suspiciously well lately. (What do they gain by losing on purpose?)

"They're not so much stupid as simple," the Yeerk said. "They know what the problem is – Andalites. Once your fleet is diluted enough, they hit you where it hurts the most."

(The Andalite home world,) I said. The Yeerk clapped sardonically as I furiously pondered my options.

"As we speak, the Kelbrid are putting together a huge fleet for the assault. They don't know what you have in the way of defenses, so instead of spying, they decided on sending enough ships to demolish anything you could array against them."

(How do you benefit from any of this?) I asked angrily. I could shake the feeling that I was being set up. (If we're wiped out, you get rid of a powerful enemy. Why help us?)

The Yeerk actually made the Kelbrid puppet sigh. It was a strange, sputtering sound. "You're looking at it the wrong way. Most of my bretheren would rather die than help you Andalites, but I am fortunate enough to be able to see the bigger picture. You hurt us badly at Earth. We don't have the means to stop the Kelbrid, but you do. What do you think happens to us Yeerks when you Andalites are erased from the galaxy?"

I'd had about enough. Even if I _could _trust this Yeerk – which was never something I would do willingly – talking about the problem didn't solve it. I'd just found out that my home was at risk. It was time to take every ship and every warrior back to our home world, even if that meant throwing away everything we'd accomplished so far. Protecting the lesser species of the galaxy was important, but overall, secondary. How could we be of service to anyone if we were all dead?

(I'm glad to know there's at least _one _Yeerk in the galaxy that isn't a total waste of carbon,) I said, coming as close to a compliment as any Yeerk would ever get from me. (But the fact remains that no matter how good your intentions are, the Kelbrid are still a problem. Wishing it weren't so and talking about alliances that will never happen isn't going to change that.) I turned to leave and my soldiers followed my lead.

"Kelbrid security is ridiculously easy to beat," the Yeerk said to my back. "They would never suspect me of anything, for any reason. At this point, they are not capable of understanding the concept behind Yeerk control of a host. Talk to comrades you trust. Get their advice. I will do my best to sabotage the Kelbrid effort on my end of things, but if you decide you want to talk again, contact me at this frequency," he said, pressing a button on the arm of his chair that transmitted a string of numbers to Dron's handheld computer. "You're right about one thing," he told me as I went to leave. "I don't have any idea of how to stop them. All I know is that I am willing to help you. One thing you should know – the Kelbrid have an abnormal fear of what they don't understand. The more confusing it is, the more erratic and irrational their actions become. It's a flaw that, as far as I can tell, is species-wide."

I turned around to face him. The strange, ant-like face gazed impassively, a mask behind which the Yeerks true intentions and agendas were hidden. (What is your name?) I asked him on impulse.

The mandibles again spread apart in a Kelbrid smile. "I am known as Harvis 1030. I'm not going to ask you to trust me or give you my word that I am reliable. Not that I don't have a word to give – I simply just don't believe you'd believe it. What I _will _say is this – what do I have to gain through letting you leave this ship alive? Remember this – I warned you of a threat you didn't know about, I drew you into the center of my web, and I let you go unharmed."

I supressed the urge to snap at him, to remind him of Andalite superiority, or to threaten him. Instead, I carefully considered his words, and nodded my head to him once. (I will remember.) With those words, I left his chamber and went back to my own shuttle. I held my head high the whole way, but didn't dare draw a breath until we were on our way back to the _Fire Flower._ The noisy inhalation beside me told me Dron hadn't dared to breathe, either.

(Do you trust him?) Dron asked me privately. No other Andalite would have dared been so blunt with me, but Dron was as close to a friend as I had in the military. I took a liking to him because his fearless, straightforward, no-nonsense nature reminded me of a mix between Tobias and Prince Jake.

(Of course I don't trust him. I am, however, very interested in what he had to say,) I said thoughtfully.

(Your orders?) Dron asked me as we began our docking procedure with the _Fire Flower_.

I smiled. (Inform the Kelbrid ships that they are free to go. Falsify a reactor leak aboard the _Nove Child_ to justify our withdrawl.) Dron didn't question my orders, he just got busy with his normal efficiency. I retired to my quarters – ridiculously big and lavishly decorated quarters. I'd resisted the urge to laugh when I'd been taken there for the first time. I'd wanted to turn it into a secondary conference room and move to smaller, more modest quarters, but Dron had quietly suggested that I keep the quarters to maintain appearances, and I'd reluctantly done so. I ground some grass beneath my hooves, already thinking of the best way to go about everything in light of this new information.


	4. Chapter 3 Interruption

Chapter 3

**Jake**

I spit out a mouthful of salt water and lifted my head and chest high off of the board, scanning the gray waters for Rachel's red wetsuit. I caught a glimpse of her getting up on an especially good, towering breaker and smiled despite myself. I'd taken up surfing as my primary hobby after Ax had left for Kelbrid space, and it turned out that I wasn't really too terrible at it. Rachel, after Tobias had gotten busy helping Marco with a hush-hush project, had started surfing with me. Of course, while I did it as an exercise in relaxation, Rachel turned it into a fierce competition, which wasn't entirely a bad thing. It kept me on my toes and had me trying things I wouldn't have normally tried, such as surfing at dawn on a rainy, cold day in waters sharks were known to frequent. Of course, Rachel was ready to dive right in, but I'd insisted we morph dolphins first and check out the terrain for large, hungry, man-eating fish. Rachel had agreed – 'Any excuse to go dolphin,' as she'd put it – and had joined me. She'd called me a sissy the entire time, but she'd sped up and down the coast for a mile with me, searching for sharks with echolocation. After finding only two sharks larger than five feet and ascertaining that they were both stalking schools of mackeral, we'd demorphed and started catching some waves.

I floated on the board that the O'neill family had custom made for me (and paid me a ridiculous sum of money to do a thirty-second commercial on) and spied the tell-tale whitecap on a wave a hundred feet out to sea. I decided that it had the size and placement that I wanted and began paddling for shore ahead of it. I felt the water start to drop out below me, like I was laying on a waterbed going down a fast-moving elevator, and heard the roar of the top of the wave, several feet above my head. I felt the board start to fall into synch with the rushing water, felt the droplets start falling on the top of my head from the curling tip of the wave, and got ready to stand. This was the part that took me the longest to catch on to and also the critical few seconds where, if a screw-up were to happen, it generally would. I'd fallen probably a hundred times, but I still hated the helpless, panicked feeling of being rolled along the sandy bottom, crushed down by tons of seawater. I waited until all my instinct and training was screaming 'now or never!' at me, and I made the transition between being balanced on my chest, to my hands and knees, and quickly to my feet that were spread shoulder-length apart. I resisted the urge to yell as I felt my feet groove into the waxed, grainy surface of the board and, if only for a moment, became the master of both the board and the massive quantity of rolling, shifting seawater we call a wave. I reached my left hand up and let it slice the top of the wave like a shark fin and enjoyed the ecstacy of being completely surrounded by a wall of water, narrowly staying inches ahead of the closing pipe behind me. I rode the wave out until I had slowed to the point where staying standing was no longer an option, and dove neatly off of the board with nary a splash. I emerged from the water head-first, still grinning like an idiot, and started looking for Rachel to start the next round of our never-ending trash-talking session. I spied her standing on the beach, holding her board above her head for protection against the driving rain, and squinted against a sure hallucination –

and felt my smile dissolve as I realized I _wasn't _hallucinating. An Andalite I wasn't familiar with stood stalk-still and rigid, waiting for me. I trudged out of the water, knowing that everything was too good to be true. I hadn't asked the Ellimist for peace in the galaxy simply because I knew it wasn't a possibility. It was along the same lines as what Cassie had said, back before we'd signed up for the Taruff/Trunsk conflict – you couldn't have only good in the galaxy. Balance was the only way to go. I planted my board in the moist sand and slapped Rachel's outstretched hand, supressing a grin. That was Rachel for you – yeah, we were probably about to sign up for a death campaign against yet another impossibly evil alien race. She wasn't going to start thinking about that until she got some skin from me for a good surfing run, though. "I'm Jake," I said, not offering a hand shake because I knew Andalite's didn't shake hands. I did open my hands in a gesture of peace and complimented it with a slight nod, which I'd learned was the Andalite way of saying 'nice to meet you.' His stalk eyes curved into an involuntary smile of surprise as he remembered that appearances were decieving. Yeah, I looked like a twenty-one year old human kid, overdue for a haircut and a day late for a shave, but my little gesture reminded him that I probably had more experience in dealing with both hostile and friendly aliens in my little finger than he had in his whole body.

(I am Dron-Contate-Trafatil,) he said as stiffly as his posture. (I've been sent to meet with Admiral Silas by Captain Aximili, but he instructed me to contact you first.) He seemed to relax a little, and again smiled. (The Captain's faith and respect for you are unequaled.)

I gestured Dron and Rachel to follow me out of the elements. My love for surfing had allowed me to overlook the weather for a while, but now that I was done, my dislike for rain was putting me in a bad mood, as it always did. Once we got to a covered pavillion, I peeled out of the top half of my wetsuit and waited for Dron to say more. He seemed to be conflicted, but over what, I didn't know. Finally he said, (I'm sorry, I know I should deal with business immediately, but I have to comment on your mode of transportation. I have morphed a human before, and I find the balance to be very…unstable.) I picked up on a hint of smugness and assumed that 'unstable' wasn't his first choice for an adjective to describe human balance, but he was trying to be polite. (The way you balanced yourself on the plank and manipulated the water for locomotion is incredible.)

I resisted the urge to laugh. Rachel _did _laugh. "It's not for transportation. It's for fun. It's not easy, but anybody can learn."

Dron looked confused. (Yes. Fun,) he said, as if the word was new to him. (Anyway, the briefing I've prepared for you is rather lengthy, and it would be of optimum efficiency for me to only give it once. Can we obtain transport to meet with the other Animorphs so the briefing can commence?)

Rachel locked her jaw the way she always did when something was making her mad, and I reminded myself that Rachel was a hothead and it _had _been a while since we'd had to deal with a snobby alien. Nevertheless, I shot her a look and she subsided without saying anything. "Right," I said, walking toward the parking lot. "You may be able to fit into my car without morphing," I told him, gesturing to the beat-up, 1980 Bronco. I'd ripped off the camper shell, leaving the cargo area open except for the roll-bars. Marco had looked like he was in actual pain when I'd shown it to him.

"Jake, you're one of the most famous people on Earth. Lexus, Audi, Mercedes-Benz, and BMW would kill each other to be able to be the one to design you a surf wagon. You wouldn't pay a dime. And you went off and _bought _this piece of crap?" he'd said to me.

"It was only five hundred bucks," I'd replied defensively. "Why the hell would I let people waste millions to design something that's just going to get sandy and nasty anyway?"

"You _paid _for this," he'd said in an accusing tone with a shudder, as if he were the last sane person on Earth.

Rachel shook me out of my memory as she snatched the board out from under my arm. She stuffed them in the side of the open-aired cargo bed, banging mine hard enough against a roll bar that I winced and imagined a nice little dent. "Get in, if you think you can handle it," she said haughtily to Dron. She smiled sweetly and said, "If you don't think it's safe enough, you can morph and sit in the front. I'll ride in the back with only my _unstable human balance _to protect me." Dron gave her a look that suggested he'd just smelled something terrible and gracefully leaped into the back of the Bronco.

(I'm sure I can manage,) he said dryly. (Are there any safety restraints I should know about?)

I cut off Rachel's sarcastic remark. "No, but it'll be okay. We won't go over forty. We'll just take the back way to Marco's studio."

He looked confused, and then amused. (Forty. Oh, forty miles per hour. Okay,) he visibly relaxed, and Rachel again looked like she was working herself up over nothing. I cut off her unspoken (but surely smart-assed) remarks by throwing the SUV into reverse and gunning it out of the parking lot and onto the side street that would meander towards downtown.

Dron made several comments as we cruised to Marco's studio, but they were all so open and honest that I could tell Rachel was starting to warm up to him. She was still focused on having someone new invading into our lives. I, on the other hand, was already dreaming up the horrible messages he was sure to deliver. I wasn't ignorant enough to imagine that we could stay out of the Kelbrid Wars forever, but I mean, come on. Ax was a full prince, doing what he'd always dreamed of. Me, Rachel, Marco, Tobias, and Cassie were a bunch of kids who got shoved into the middle of an alien invasion. I was trying furiously to make up for lost time. The only advantage we had over anyone else is popularity. We didn't have to go out and work jobs we hated just to scrape by. The public backed us in whatever we wanted to do, and even promoted us and held us up on pedestals for doing things as simple as surfing. Commerce – I guess it was always the same. Greed drove everything, and we happened to be lucky enough to benefit from it.

We pulled onto Lot 17, which was where Marco's 'next big thing' was being produced. He wouldn't tell anyone what it was – it was real hush-hush. He claimed he wanted it to be a surprise. He'd brought Tobias in from the beginning, who was reluctant at first, but came back from his first day bouncing off the walls. Apparently, Marco'd built his ego up until he was actually thrilled at being a movie star. "Tobias, you're a world hero and an icon for generations to come. You're a _real_ hero. Why do you care about being a movie star?" Rachel had asked him incredulously after his first day.

"This will give everyone a chance to get to know the real me," Tobias had replied. "They know the war hero – now they'll know the funny and talented Tobias."

Rachel had stared lasers through him, and I'd refrained from laughing. I had my suspicions as to _where _Tobias had gotten these delusions of grandeur, which were soon confirmed when Rachel asked that very question in a not-so-nice way. "Who filled your head up with all this crap about 'The Real Tobias?'"

"Marco," Tobias had said defensively. "I know he's not the best role model, but this is _his _world. He told me he'd take care of me and show me the ropes. He's been a pretty good guy to me so far."

"I'll play along," Rachel had said. "I'll even forget you just used the words 'Marco,' 'role model,' and 'good guy' all in the same sentence. But if he makes you look stupid, or puts you in danger, or does _anything _shady to you, I'll -"

"Rachel, you're being patronizing," I cut her off. I knew it wasn't really my place, but she was so overbearing and Tobias was more or less non-confrontational, and I couldn't help it. "Tobias is a big boy. He can take care of himself. If he wants to take a shot at being a movie god, who're you to tell him no?"

Rachel'd shot me a dirty look and Tobias sent me a grateful one, and that was the end of it. Until now.

The guard stopped us at the gate, not glancing twice at the Andalite hanging out of the back of the Bronco. I guess you got used to seeing weird stuff when you worked in a movie studio. "Hey, Jake, Rachel. Sorry, closed set today. You'll have to wait until Marco and Tobias are done at five."

Rachel, who'd had her fill of being told what to do today, stood up in her seat. "Listen up, buddy. You open that gate, or I'll show you a pissed-off grizzly bear special effect that you won't forget for -"

"Sorry, Jeff," I said, reading his name badge and cutting Rachel off in one smooth step. "This is a matter of planetary security. Call your boss if you have to. Hell, call the president. I don't care what it takes, but you've got to either get us in there or get Marco and Tobias out here in less than five minutes. Lives are depending on you, man," I told him, hoping to play to the self-importance of most people.

It worked. He involuntarily straightened and schooled his features to complete seriousness. "Of course, sir. You should have said so, sir. Go right in – I'll take full responsibility for breaking closed set." He slapped his green button and the flimsy wooden gate rose. I gave him an informal salute. Rachel, picking up on the game, told him that his contribution to Earth this day would not soon be forgotten. We burned rubber into the parking lot and all headed for the huge, covered building where Marco's all important project was taking place. Me and Rachel discretely high-fived while Dron asked what a 'set' was and whether or not the green button had deactivated security mines and automated gun turrets.


	5. Chapter 4 Godzilla?

Chapter 4

**Rachel**

When we entered Marco's set, I'd stopped and stared around the 'room,' perplexed. It looked like an everyday city, except the skyscrapers merged into a lime-green ceiling at about their seventh floor. A little trash littered the gutters, flyers were stapled to anything wooden, business people weaved in between moving cars and taxis. (Why do humans construct buildings indoors?) Dron wondered. I was about to answer him when three quick earthquakes nearly shook us to the ground and a dragon stuck his head around one of the skyscrapers, eyeing the pedestrians hungrily.

This was no special effect. This was no Jurassic Park, animatronic robot. This was a real, live, Godzilla's-daddy monster. People started screaming and threw their briefcases and coffees into the air. Cars crashed as drivers gawked. The monster roared so loudly that I almost passed out.

It swung its whip-like tail into a car who's driver had wisely bailed out, and the blue Honda exploded. "Get down!" Jake yelled, ducking behind a phone booth. I was too stunned to join him.

(That monster is trying to harm human civilians!) Dron yelled unnecessarily. (Cease your destruction of human property, fiend!) he bellowed at the towering dragon. To my surprise, the beast hesitated.

Just as the puzzle pieces started to come together in my head, Marco roared around the corner in a ridiculous, souped-up golf cart. "Cut! Cut!" he yelled into a bullhorn. "Go ahead and demorph, Tobias. It seems we have visitors," he said accusingly at us. Then, to no one in general, "Visitors! On my CLOSED SET! Who the _hell _thought that I would be okay with this?" He hopped out of the golf cart as muttering actors picked up their props, and he patted the nearest ones on the shoulder as he made his way over to us, saying, "Good work, brilliant. Take five. Take five."

Tobias, who was shrinking out of his monster-morph he'd gotten from somewhere, said, (Sorry, guys, but I happen to agree with Marco. We spent all morning setting up this shot.)

Jake grinned sheepishly at me. "I forgot. Tobias acquired that Mazerroo on Xylen. I had kind of a lot to worry about at the time. Sorry."

(A morph. It was a morph,) Dron said, obviously still a little shaken. (Why do you humans _do _things like this? If I'd have been armed, I would have burned him down.)

"I doubt it," Tobias said, fully human. "That Mazerroo took starfighter laser blasts to the chest on Xylen."

Dron looked doubtful, but before he could argue the point, Marco interrupted. "Yeah, great, wonderful. Now I've got to explain to the budget committee why I paid forty-two actors fifty bucks an hour this morning and have nothing to show for it. Not to mention the Honda – _that _was a good thirty-thousand dollar special effect down the drain. Do you at least have a good reason for this?"

Tobias gave me a hug and a quick kiss, and I grinned. "Well, yeah. The good news is that you won't have to deal with your budget committee for quite a while. The bad news is that we're about to have to go help Ax in the Blooto Sector or wherever."

(Blooto sector? No, the _Fire Flower _is stationed three parsecs away from the Blueleaf cluster in the Picoesh sector. I have never heard of the Blooto sector,) Dron interjected.

Marco ignored him, the disbelief and dismay on his face almost comical. "No!" he yelled, pulling on his hair. "Not again! How can _anybody _be expected to put out a film with these kinds of things to deal with? Why do _I _have to go?" He collapsed into a chair an intern had settled behind him, rubbing at his head as if he had a sudden migraine.

"You don't _have_ to do anything," Tobias told him. "Since _I'll _be going and I don't think you know anyone else with a Mazerroo morph, you might as well, though."

Marco shot him a look that suggested he'd just caught Tobias keying his car. "You got it all figured out, don't you, chicken?"

Tobias bristled and I took a step toward Marco. "You can stop with the bird jokes. Tobias hasn't been a hawk for over a year, Marco."

Marco seemed to relax a little. "Yeah, but he'll always be a buzzard to me," he said with a slight smile. He looked at Dron. "All right, homey, give it to me straight."

Dron scuffed a hoof. (My name is not Homey, it is Dron-Contate-Trafatil. Should we wait for Cassie to arrive, Prince Jake?)

Jake shook his head. "She's in the Azores. No phone, no way to get in touch with her."

(Ah. Okay, then. I am here to request that you help me represent Prince Aximili to your government to requisition reinforcements for the Andalite home world. It is under threat by the Kelbrid – and that information is so top secret that if it gets out, I'll deny knowing you,) Dron said seriously.

Jake stared blankly at him, his expression unreadable. "Dron, that's kind of a big deal. Why are you wasting time gathering up all of us? Go through the Andalite embassy and get in touch with Admiral Silas."

(Prince Aximili was under the impression that you would want to join him in the defense of our world,) Dron said, as if Jake was stupid. (If you don't want to help, then I _will _go through the embassy.)

"Hold up a second there," I said. "Of course we're going to go help. _All _of us," I said sharply, mainly to Marco.

(Okay, then. The Kelbrid are intent on annihilating our world to stop us from driving them back into their own space. Prince Aximili recently acquired some intelligence on the Kelbrid – they are very superstitious. He seems to think the best course of action, besides protecting the world itself, is to come up with a way to scare them. He told me that you humans were very resourceful and could more than likely come up with a good plan to do this.)

"Of course I can!" Marco exclaimed. "I make movies for a living, for Pete's sake. Let's go! I'll creep these Kelbrid out so bad that they'll think humans are the most magical, evil, vindictive, horrible, nasty, disgusting -"

"He means to say we'll do our best," Jake cut him off. "I'll get us a meeting with Admiral Silas pronto. Rachel, you and Tobias get the _Messenger _prepped for Z-space. Dron, go with them – I want us ready to burn out of here as soon as possible. Marco, get whatever you need together, get all of your business tied up here, and get over there, too. After I talk to Silas, we need to make burn trails."

Marco stared. "You love this, don't you? You couldn't _wait _for something like this," he accused Jake, who just ignored him. He walked away quickly, already on his cell phone.

Dron smiled his Andalite smile. (I see now why Prince Aximili and Prince Jake get along so well. They are very alike.)

"Yeah, yeah," I said, anxious to go now that a decision had been made. "Let's get over to the starport. Jake is _not _gonna be happy if we're not ready to leave before he is." I took Tobias' hand and led him out of the building, eager to get into the fight. As soon as I got into it, we'd win. I'd make a difference. I was caught up in the old Rachel and I knew it, but not even Tobias commented as we went to find transport to the L.A. Starport.


	6. Chapter 5 Red Feathers

Chapter 5

Marco 

I zipped up my flight suit and walked out of the VIP office in the starport that I was using as a dressing room. Rachel was waiting out in the hallway. She was wearing the same flight suit with the same exact patches, pockets and everything, but of course, she managed to make it look like a new Abercrombie fashion. It hugged her curves in all the right places, and the zipper didn't quite go up all the way to show just a tiny, tasteful bit of cleavage. Her hair was in a no-nonsense ponytail, but her make-up was flawlessly applied. "Tell me again why we can't just take a shuttle up to the _Red Feathers?_ I _hate_ this jumpsuit. It makes me look fat," she complained.

I grinned as we started towards our assigned hangar. "First of all, you look fine in that suit. Secondly, a shuttle would be safer, easier, and more convienient." I held up my hand to stall her argument. "It wouldn't be flashy enough, however. People like flashy, Rachel. C'mon, can you honestly tell me you're not going to enjoy burning ass out of here in your starfighter like you're in some space-age Top Gun?"

"I haven't gotten used to the new whatchamacallit fighters yet," she grumbled, but even Rachel had to make it sound forced. The Top Gun reference cheered her up every time.

"You know damn good and well they're called Firestorms, and you also know that they make the Makos look like flying rocks." In the day it had taken us to get the _Messenger _prepped and everything arranged, we'd been introduced to the new standard in starfighters for the Earth Space Forces, the Firestorm. With a huge-caliber, nose-mounted gatling gun, twin shredders, and an eighteen rocket package, it was by far the most powerful fighter I'd flown. Add that to the fact that it was fast and maneuverable, and it made me fall in love with it in the first simulator run. "As the commander of Voodoo squadron, I get to pick my executive officer. I pick you. That means you have to fly my wing."

Rachel stopped walking and shot me a poisonous look, and I had to supress a smile. I just loved needling her. "Let me just get one thing straight. I know you feel like you have to make up for your short stature, but you can't boss me around, Marco. I don't care who you think you are. I don't care if you're the dictator of the galaxy, you don't tell me to do a damn thing. I won't pick you up a cheeseburger from Wendy's even if I'm already in the drive-thru unless you say please, you understand me?"

"Okay, okay. Will you _pretty please with a cherry on top _teach these chumps how to fly these fighters so we can kick the hell out of these Kelbrid and come back home to enjoy the finer things in life?" I asked her psuedo-sweetly.

She put her pointer finger on her chin as she considered. Two techs jogged up to us and handed us our life-support gear, which we took. "Will you score me one of those new Ferrari's when we get back?" she asked.

I grinned. "I'll see what I can do…but you'll have to race me for it," I told her.

She did her psychotic, you-don't-know-who-you're-messing-with grin. "Oh, you're on. In your stupid little Nissan? Oh, you're _definitely _on." She climbed the ladder and hopped into the shiny-new Firestorm fighter, got a thumbs-up from the two techs outside, and dogged the canopy closed. I saw her flipping switches and heard her engines whine to life as they powered up. I followed suit, and we were soon in the air, hovering two meters above the canopy floor doing our systems checks.

Jake's voice came over the intercom. "Voodoo leader, this is _Messenger._ Come in."

I grinned. Did he have to sound so serious all the time? "Loud and clear, Jake. What's up?"

"Me, Dron, and Tobias are going to pick up Cassie. You guys are going to pass over the town and then vector in to rendevous with the _Red Feathers._ You'll be doing different stuff, so you'll get your briefing ahead of time."

"Gotcha, chief. We good to go?" I asked.

"Yeah, yeah, let's go," Rachel said impatiently, not waiting for Jake's reply. She revved her anti-gravity thrusters to full and pointed the nose of her fighter at the overhead canopy doors, which the techs quickly opened.

"I've got lead, Rachel," I warned her before she could burn out of there. She grumbled something in reply, and I gently worked the fighter out of the hangar and brought it into a relaxed, slow climb. We floated over crowds of people gathered to catch a glimpse of us, and I inverted the fighter to wave at them. Rachel followed suit.

"This thing handles like a dream," she said. "Just like the simulators. Let's see what she's got." I smiled and dialed up the burn to forty percent of maximum, and we took off like there was no tomorrow. The air got wispier and the sky got darker the higher we went, and I saw Rachel corkscrewing off to the side of me just for the fun of it.

"Keep in formation, Two," I reminded her. "We don't want the crew of _Red Feathers _thinking we're not professionals."

"Got it," she said, and I was relieved that an argument didn't come.

On the approach to the massive, orbiting battleship that was to be our home indefinitely, Rachel noted that it looked like a big hammer. In that, she was pretty accurate. The engine cluster did look like the head of a hammer, and the 'shaft' of the ship was dotted with tiny window-looking dots piled on top of each other like an ocean liner. As I got closer, I realized they were gun turrets and torpedo batteries, and I whistled. "That is a lot of firepower."

"Kinda makes you feel small and insignificant, doesn't it?" Rachel agreed.

"_Approaching starfighters, this is Earth Starfleet Battleship Red Feathers. Please send your codes and wait for approval before beginning your approach,_" and inhuman, mechanical voice said.

"Copy," I replied, pressing the button that would send Jake's special clearance code. The voice came back almost immediately.

"_Voodoo One and Two, you are cleared for priority landing in docking bay Alpha One, approach vector six-nine-nine-eight-four._"

"Cool," Rachel said. "Alpha One? That's probably the most important bay on the ship."

"It's the captain's private docking bay. I hope landing there is a good thing, and not the alternative."

As usual, everything going right was too much to ask for.


	7. Chapter 6 The Admiral

Chapter 6

Jake 

After we picked up Cassie, Dron started the _Messenger _on the rendevous with _Red Feathers_. I'd sent Marco and Rachel ahead because Admiral Silas had contacted me earlier saying the fighter squadrons would be deployed soon, and Marco needed to be in on the action from the beginning. If you ask me, Silas was putting way too much faith in Marco. Not that I doubted his abilities, but come on – these fighter squads were composed of the world's top pilots. Being good at video games was one thing, but leading people into combat…well, that was never really Marco's forte.

Cassie and I sat in the cockpit of the _Messenger_ as we left atmosphere. I was half watching Dron pilot the ship and half watching Cassie. Dron was quiet, but seemed competent enough as he took the ship up through the stratosphere. Cassie held my hand as she watched the stars grow closer and brighter. She leaned forward and tapped a couple of buttons on the control panel, and some of the viewport projected an image of Earth from a rear-mounted camera. She sighed and said quietly, "I don't know if that's ever going to stop being amazing."

"I know what you mean," I said, but my attention was on the battleship that was growing in the forward viewport. I prepared to send my clearance codes, but no inquiry ever came. "Admiral Silas must be in some kind of rush if he's going to break protocol and not query us."

Dron did the Andalite version of a snort. (No matter what the hurry, no Andalite ship would ever let another craft approach without communications.)

I ignored the barb and said, "Well, we'll find out why soon enough. Aim for the bay right under the bridge, there at the nose of the ship." Dron did so, and a man waved us in to land beside two starfighters with his glow sticks. Dron set her down with a shudder, but I figured it wasn't my place to reprimand him. "Let's go see what this is about," I said, lowering the ramp and walking out with Cassie. Dron and Tobias followed closely behind us.

A tall man with lieutenant's bars on his uniform saluted me, and I threw him an informal salute in return. "Follow me, please," he said, and turned sharply on his heel and began to march deeper into the ship. I exchanged a look with Tobias who shrugged, and we all did as he said. Five minutes later, he led us into what looked like a war room. Admiral Silas rose as we entered, then resumed his place at the head of the table, motioning us to sit, which we did. Well, except for Dron, who stood easily behind me.

"Mr. Berenson, thanks for joining us," Silas said. He tapped some buttons on the arm of his chair, and a hologram sprung to life over the center of the table. A few buttons later, he'd isolated and enlarged a sector of space I wasn't familiar with. "This is the Balustrad sector. We received a distress call from the _Ranger-_class scouting ship _Vigilance_ here about four hours ago. I'll play it now."

The starfield was replaced with a scared-looking, young captain. "Earth Starfleet, this is the _Vigilance_. We've encountered a light Kelbrid cruiser, and it's somehow manipulating space to create a gravity well. We can't run, so we're about to detonate our emergency EMP. Please respond quickly. We'll let the Kelbrid cruiser get close enough to knock it out with our EMP. Message over." It began to repeat itself, and Silas swapped it for the starfield, but this time two small, glowing ships were present.

"If the _Vigilance's _plan worked, they've only got about thirty-one more hours of canned air on the ship. The EMP will have knocked out their own air recyclers. We're twenty-eight and a half hours away at flank speed. Mr. Berenson, your suggestions?" All the four-star generals and military tacticians turned to look at me. I waited for the feeling of fear or nervousness to hit, but it never did. I guess I'd had enough of making impressions and figured out what really mattered – saving lives and winning battles.

"Flank speed to the _Vigilance_," I shrugged. "We've got a ship full of men to save. On top of that, there's a helpless Kelbrid cruiser, relatively undamaged, floating in a known location waiting for us to scoop it up. This could be the edge we need, gentlemen."

"How is the cruiser an 'edge?'" a general asked me as he chewed on a pen. "It only fields twenty Kelbrid, and ten of those are warriors. Hardly the sort of weapon that's going to turn the tide."

I smiled. "It's not the ship itself that's the weapon, it's what we can do with it. Me, Marco, Rachel, Tobias, Dron, and Cassie are morph-capable. We can get a few more people involved in this project and have an entrance to Kelbrid secrets, plans, you name it."

Silas slapped his chair and grinned, making the holo display go fuzzy for a minute. "Hot dog! You're gonna _pretend _to be a Kelbrid picket ship? You got some brass ones, Jake. I like that! Flank speed to the _Vigilance_!" he yelled into his intercom. He settled down a little. "You know you're going to have to actually _turn into _these buggers to pull this off, right?"

I shrugged again. "Can't be any worse than a flea or a termite," I said. "Now that our morphing time limit is gone, as long as we can stand it, we can pretend to be Kelbrid."

Marco and Rachel walked in, and the admiral grinned. "Marco, Rachel. You guys may be seeing some action in a little over a day, so I want you to go ahead and meet the members of Voodoo as soon as possible. After that, grab something to eat and meet me so we can set up a briefing for your pilots. Dismissed."

"Dismissed?" Rachel asked incredulously, her face turning beet red. Before she could explode, Marco sketched an informal salute and led Rachel out of the Admiral's conference room. He looked at me questioningly.

"Rachel's not really known for her ability to take orders," I explained a little sheepishly. "Add that to the fact that she's not technically in the military, and she tends to get a little upset when people boss her around. _I _know you're just being efficient and don't mean anything by it, but she doesn't."

Silas stared at me for a second, and shook his head. "I'll try to keep that in mind next time I talk to the young lady. Anyway, we got work to do. Let's get to it," he said, clapping his hands once and calling up more maps, eager to plan his attack. I sat down and watched him, but on the inside I was wondering if impersonating a Kelbrid was going to work at all.


	8. Chapter 7 Voodoo Squadron

Chapter 7

**Rachel**

Who the hell did that Silas jerk think he was? I wasn't some enlisted punk from a backwater county in Mississippi. I was Rachel Berenson, protector and savior of Planet Earth. While he was in Cadet School or whatever, I was battling full-grown Hork-bajir. I was bleeding and dying, and now he wanted to give me orders? I was looking for the nearest escape pod until Marco hit me with some words of wisdom (which _never_ came out of Marco's mouth.)

"Rachel, honestly. I know you're mad – I can see it." He cut off my protest with a very swift hand motion. "The Admiral didn't mean to dismiss you like that. He knows you're more of a hero than he'll ever be. He's just trying to do his job the best he knows how. You don't get pissed off when Jake gives you an order, and that's because you respect and trust him. You don't have to respect Silas, but you've got to trust him. I do – to a certain extent. We're all just going to do our best here, and then we can go home. What do you say?"

I started back with a retort to tell Marco to shut the hell up, he didn't know what he was talking about. I actually stopped and thought about it, and I realized that he _did_ know what he was talking about. Silas wasn't messing with me. He wasn't trying to get a rise. He was just doing his job. He wasn't a part of our war, and he didn't share the bond of respect that me, Marco, Jake, Tobias, Cassie, and Ax had for each other. He didn't have the slightest clue as to what we were all about. He was ignorant of it all, and me getting mad at him wouldn't change that.

"You're right," I said grudgingly. "Silas may be a jerk, but he's just doing his job. I'll do mine."

Marco looked a bit worried as he paused at the pilot ready room's panel. "I'm the commander, Rachel. You _will_ follow my lead, won't you?"

"Yeah, I'll follow your lead. But I'm not taking anybody's crap, either," I said as I slapped the wall panel that opened the door.

I'm not really sure what I expected when I opened those doors. I guess I halfway expected some crack-trained, silent-and-waiting-for-orders military unit waiting for me and Marco's orders. I sure wasn't expecting this.

Two guys in Voodoo Squadron flight suits were having a vicious but apparently friendly knife-fight. A girl with short, blond hair and blue eyes was taking a shot with a humongous man of a man. The rest were playing cards by a small viewport which was showing Z-space. Marco shouldered past me and cleared his throat. They all turned to look, and not one of them had a receptive expression on their face.

"My name is Marco, and I'm your new commander. Line up by rank," Marco said in a very commanding, professional tone of voice. I was impressed – I guess the rest weren't.

The huge guy killed his shot of the amber substance in the glass and stood. "The commander, eh?" he said in a very Austrailian, very combative tone of voice. "And my Aunt Sue is the queen of England." The rest of the squadron burst out in laughter, and my automatic irritation circuits kicked in.

"Hey, asshole, he _is_ the commander, and I'm the second-in-command, so you'd better shut you're dumb-ass mouth and open your big ears," I challenged him. He flushed and stepped forward, but the blond girl grabbed the front of his flight suit and pushed him into his chair.

She sauluted Marco and I and said, "Leiutenant Vieri, at your service. The squad is a little rough, sir, but we'll do our job."

Marco laughed and motioned first at the two guys who had paused their knife fight and then to Vieri and the Australian jerk. "If those two idiots don't carve each other up first, and if you two jokers aren't wasted for our first mission, then we might have a chance. I said line up by rank!" he bellowed.

Reluctantly, all ten of them did as ordered. As they called out their information, I ascertained that there were five Americans, two Italians (Vieri included), the Australian named Kevin Hand, a Japanese guy, and an Irishman. "This is like a bad joke," I said in not-quite a whisper, and Kevin bowed up again.

Marco called him out. "You seem to be the only one disinclined to pay attention to rank. Why is that?"

He smiled. "Because I'm the best pilot on this ship." His statement was met with several muttered curses.

Marco smiled back, but it was filled with menace. "Well, we'll see about that very shortly. We're going to the simulators so I can see all of you fly, and then I'll set you up by wing pairs and flight groups."

Vieri spoke up again. "But, Commander, we already have been assigned these."

"Well, I'm going to change them up some. Need I remind you that Rachel and I are the only ones who've seen actual space combat? I think I know how to better array my pilots than some tactician or computer. Double time to the simulator facilities." As the pilots left the room, he whispered to me, "So, how'd I do?"

"Fine. But I think I'm going to introduce Hand to my grizzly morph in about five seconds," I growled. Marco laughed as we started to the simulators.

"We'll light him up in the sims. That should make him chill out a little. We're going to need him if the Kelbrid have their starfighters operational by the time we get there. We're going to need everybody."


	9. Chapter 8 Battle Plans

Chapter 8

**Jake**

I had sent messages across the ship to get everyone to my quarters, which were spacious for a battleship but modest enough to keep me comfortable. Tobias, Cassie and Rachel had arrived, but Marco was apparently in the middle of some last-minute adjustments to the squadron. He was taking his job as the commander very seriously, and this was one of the few times that a serious Marco made me more comfortable instead of the other way around.

"So anyway, this jerk Hand thinks he's going to waltz in and blow us away on the six-on-six training dogfight Marco set up. The guy leaves his wingman and goes straight for Marco, and I gotta say, he almost shot off Marco's entire right wing in the head to head and then whipped around on his tail. Marco had lost a lot of his maneuvering ability and was all but space dust until yours truly dropped a rocket straight up the butt of Hand's fighter. It was probably the single most beautiful experience of my young life," Rachel was telling Tobias with an ear-to-ear smile.

"What are we going to do?" I asked, almost to myself. At least with the Yeerks, the variables were limited. We'd been briefed, but the closer we got to the place where a fight with these Kelbrid was sure to take place, the more I realized we knew zilch about these aliens.

Tobias looked to Rachel at my question, who shrugged. "It seems pretty straightforward to me, at least this part," she said. "We go in, pound on their disabled ship a little, barge in, and take some prisoners. Easy peezy Japaneezy," she said nonchalantly, as if we did this on a daily basis.

"The operative word there is _prisoners_, Rachel. What if these guys have sworn an oath to fight to the death? How are we supposed to acquire them then?" Cassie posed.

"She's right, Rach. There's just way to much we don't know yet to just assume things will go our way," I agreed, growing more disheartened.

"We need a backup plan," Tobias said. "If we go into this without thinking about it, there's a very good chance we could wind up dead. I, for one, have some things I'd like to stick around for," he finished with a kiss on the cheek for Rachel.

"Yeah, yeah, I know, but we can't be so afraid that we do nothing," Rachel complained. "As for them not surrendering...well, a backhand from a grizzly doesn't leave you much of a choice."

"Rachel, as always, you possess the subtlety of a sledgehammer," Marco said as he entered the room and the door slid shut behind him.

I looked up, welcoming both the distraction from my thoughts and the knowledge that, even though he'd bellyache the entire time, Marco was here to help me think this thing through with his super-analytical mind. "How'd it go?" I asked.

He sighed, plopping on a chair and kicking off his boots. "I mean, as well as I could have hoped for. They're all amazing flyers, they just don't have any combat experience. Hand is a loose cannon, wild card, and a few marbles short of a bag, but we'll see how that plays out."

"You could always throw him against a couple Kelbrid squadrons and get rid of the problem," Rachel suggested. Marco decided to ignore her and take a sip of the Mountain Dew she had procured from somewhere.

"This war, though, Jake, this fight...it's not going to be won with fighter squadrons, man. That's just a tiny little slice of the pie. We need to figure out what we're going to do once we get there," Marco said heavily, and once again I wondered how much of his newfound leadership qualities were a rub off from me and how much of it was there all along. I honestly believe that fate (or maybe something a little less random) had put us together in a playpen when we were too little to talk. I believe that if something had happened to me, Marco would have been right there, front and center, to take my place.

"Well, we may be counting our chickens, guys," Tobias said. "We don't know for sure if the EMP ever went off. We don't even know if the Kelbrid ship is still there, and if it is, there could be twenty more waiting for us."

"Right, but we have a good idea of what we can expect, which is a lot more than I can say for us back when we were chopping at the Yeerks," Cassie gently disagreed. "I say we build a plan based on that, and of course we can have contingencies. Right now, we need to make a plan based on incomplete information, and then work out secondary plans for unexpected things."

I smiled as I looked at my friends. As I took in each of them in turn, I realized, not for the first time, that I'd rather have these four on my side then a thousand soldiers. "All right, then, kids. Let's order some food and hammer this into a plan," I told them.

A/N - I am truly sorry for my absence the past long while, but while I hesitate to say that I'm 100 back in this fic game, know that I'll do my best to keep churning my brain. Much love.


	10. Chapter 9 First Contact

Chapter 9   
**Cassie**   
I stood on all four legs of my wolf morph at the back of the assault shuttle, steady as the thrusters dropped us out of the hangar and accelerated towards the derelict Kelbrid cruiser. We'd dropped out of Z-space right when and where we were supposed to, found the two dead ships floating right where we expected, but something still wasn't sitting right with me. I wasn't afraid - I'd done this too many times to feel real fear. Add to the fact that there was a bengal tiger to my left, sixteen hardened space marines in front of me, and Dron to my right, and I was actually fairly comfortable. It wasn't that. _'It's too easy,' _my brain warned. _ 'Too perfect. I don't know what to expect, but I'm ready. Gotta be ready.' _   
When we reverted to normal space and saw both ships figuratively dead in the water, we'd quickly decided to go with plan A. Tobias would go on the rescue mission to the boys on our ship with the medics and computer techs; me, Jake, and Dron were to accompany the marines to assault the Kelbrid ship; Rachel and Marco, along with the rest of their squadron, were to fly cover for the whole double-pronged operation. There weren't any windows on the assault shuttle I occupied, and there wasn't any sound in space, but the quiet isolation was almost driving me mad. After what felt like forever, there was a _clang-bump_ as our shuttle docked with the Kelbrid battleship and the hull seals automatically started to equalize the pressure between the two vessels. Marines checked their weapons and gear methodically. Dron inched forward toward the door, his shredder-rifle not exactly aimed at anything but ready to be anywhere, all four of his eyes focused on the pressurized door.   
(Make sure the soldiers are set for stun,) Dron reminded me and Jake privately, and Jake did so. He didn't say anything more, which surprised me - usually he had some last minute advice before a fight. I realized he was used to fighting with _us_ - me, Tobias, Rachel, and Marco. These were marines. This was what they did. They didn't need a kid, war hero or not, telling them their business, and I admired the way Jake adapted to the situation.   
The door controls began beeping rapidly, and there was a _hiss_ of air as they finally slid open. I was in the back, so I couldn't see through the soldiers lined up in front of us, but I heard the shooting start at once. _Two_ different sets of weapons began fighting for dominance. I heard the high-pitched whine of Earth weapons, which were based on Andalite design, and what sounded like a never-ending staccato of low _whum whum whum_, which began to overwhelm the wolf's amazing sense of hearing. Jake slid through the men in front of him like a ghost and began shouting orders immediately. I'd have followed him right away, but the Kelbrid weapons were getting closer and the noise was like putting my poor wolf brain in a blender. It was utterly overwhelmed, and in a moment of clarity, I understood. Not all weapons were made of projectiles or energy beams - right back on earth there were a number of devices made only to disorient the target. My wolf brain was screaming in pain, and I had no other choice - demorph. Demorph to get into the fight.   
As I demorphed, I realized that this would be one of the only times I'd fought in my human body. Funny, that. I'd been fighting for what seemed like a lifetime, but I don't ever recall shooting a gun or throwing a punch. As I fully resumed my human shape, I realized that most of the Earth weapons and just about all of Kelbrid weapons had stopped singing. I also realized that I was the only person left in the assault shuttle, if you didn't count the four or five marines who were motionless on the floor. I quelled the sick feeling in my stomach, vowing to secure the ship and then get back to them right away to see if there was anything I could do to help them. I picked up one of the fallen rifles, marvelling at how heavy and powerful it felt. I hesitated at the door of the shuttle - the fact that everything I knew about guns came from TV or movies made me stutter-step, but I had to push on. Jake could be hurt, they might need help...I charged out into the Kelbrid ship, swinging the rifle wildly in both directions down the hallway, which was empty. '_Which way? Right or left?_' I asked myself. A not-so-Cassie voice answered; '_Just follow the bodies._'   
Not-so-Cassie was not-so-nice, but she was right. Kelbrids littered the floor to the right, so I ran that way, jumping over them as I went. I saw at least two stir, but I ignored them. "Jake!" I cried. I couldn't help it. Have you ever been lost at the mall when you were a kid, or at an amusement park, or anywhere? Terrifying for anyone. Now multiply it by about a thousand and you got what I was feeling at that moment. "Jake!"   
(I'm here,) Jake replied as he sauntered his tiger body around a corner. I was so relieved that I ran to him and threw two human arms around his neck - a strange sight for the marines and Dron, to be sure. (What happened?) he asked me, not accusingly or angrily, but out of genuine curiousity and concern.   
"Those guns they had...they drove my wolf crazy." Jake nodded his tiger head, as if to say he'd had a problem with it too. "I couldn't think, see, or hear, and by the time I had demorphed, I was by myself. I tried, Jake, I'm sorry," I finished in a rush.   
I could have sworn that tiger smiled at me. He nudged the gun in my hand with his nose and said, (I can see that.) I dropped the rifle with a clatter as he continued. (Turns out those guns of theirs are just concentrated blasts of mostly air, probably some energy too. I guess they use them on their ships so they don't damage anything. All of our guys that were hit should be okay - maybe some broken bones and bruises, but nothing fatal. But Cassie, it was worth it. We hit the jackpot,) he said as he began demorphing. The humans with us stared, and I had to remind myself that morphing was still sort of taboo on Earth. He finished and almost absentmindedly reached down to acquire one of the knocked-out Kelbrid. I followed suit, feeling the familiar sensation of the process, and then I followed him and Dron to what I assumed was the cockpit. The two of them were almost skipping, and I soon found out why.   
(I've gotten the Captain's holo-log working,) Dron told me as we entered the cockpit, which looked pretty much like any other spaceship's bridge I'd been on. (This ship was on a secret communications mission. They were to contact several Kelbrid battle groups in person in order to keep communications from being intercepted. There are two really great things that this holo-log tells us. One is that this ship was not to have any sort of contact with anyone other that the planned communiques to the battle groups. The battle groups are awaiting the messages this ship was delivering, but they don't know what the messages are or when they're coming.)   
"That's awesome news," I said. "We have some time to work, and we also have room in there for a lot of improv. You said you found out two things. What's the second?"   
"The captain of this ship was supposed to self-destruct it if any deviation from their plan took place. Apparently, the EMP knocked out their self-destruct device before they could activate it. The Kelbrid either expect this ship to finish its mission or be destroyed," Jake said, talking in the fast way he did when he was excited.   
"But we don't have to do either," I said. "We're not going to let it carry out that mission."   
(Think bigger,) Dron interrupted. (By all means, this ship _should_ deliver messages to the battle groups. But it's going to be our ship instead of theirs, and our messages -)   
"Instead of theirs," Jake finished. He smiled and actually clapped as he turned around to face the marines. "All right, boys, lets round these Kelbrid up and lock 'em in the cargo hold. Tonin, you contact the Admiral for me and let him know what's up. Yeah, there's a big fight brewing, but the Kelbrid just handed us Excalibur." 


	11. Chapter 10 Ax's Dilemma

Chapter 10

**Ax**

(Sir, we've got an incoming communication from...well, I think you're going to want to see for yourself, sir,) one of the officers of the day informed me. I rubbed my main eyes out of exhaustion - we'd just had another skirmish with Kelbrid scout ships. We'd won the battle, but I felt like every scratch and ding in my ship had hit me directly. I told the officer to send it to my terminal, which he did -

"Hello," said the Kelbrid on my screen. At my hesitation, the alien did it's mandible smile. "What, you don't recognize your old pal Jake?"

Relief flooded through me, but it was immediately followed by suspicion and adrenaline. The Yeerk had told me the Kelbrid weren't capable of deceipt, but anyone could learn. (How do I know this is Prince Jake, and not some Kelbrid scum holding my friend hostage?) I asked combatively. All eyes on my bridge, stalk and main, were on me and my conversation.

The Kelbrid held the smile, but it began to melt into a human one. I relaxed, and it must have been visible, because my officers on deck seemed to relax too. Most of them even put their main eyes back on their stations. I waited for Jake to fully demorph before speaking. (Very impressive, Prince Jake. You managed to take a Kelbrid ship?) I asked, noting the blocky design of the ship he was on in the background of the transmission.

"Absolutely." He quickly filled me in on the situation, which was better news than expected, but I still had doubts.

(Prince Jake, even if you do manage to fool the Kelbrid, what message could you bring to their battle groups that would be advantageous for us?) I asked. I hated to spoil his good mood, but his victory was a minor one in my eyes.

"I'll handle this," Marco said, pushing Jake out of the frame good-naturedly and stepping into view himself. "These battle groups are sure to make up the bulk of these bugs' space navy, right? Well, check it out. We spring a trap. We go around, meet with these Kelbrid, tell them to be at a certain place at a certain time, and then crush them."

I resisted the urge to roll my main eyes, a gesture I'd picked up from Marco, ironically enough. (That would be an excellent plan, except for the fact that even one of these battle groups is probably larger than the whole Andalite fleet. Or human fleet, for that matter. They'd demolish us through sheer numbers, no matter how we ambushed them.)

Marco didn't miss a beat. "What if there were a way to disable or destroy them before we got there?" He didn't wait for me to answer the question. "See, the electro-magnetic pulse thingy gave me an idea. Couldn't we make one to place at the Kelbrid rendevous? That way, they jump in, and _bang_, they're dead in space. After that, we could pretty much do whatever we wanted. Round up their ships and use them, blow 'em up, doesn't matter. The important thing is that they'll be missing a big chunk of their firepower. Should knock them down enough pegs in order for us to manage a successful defense of your home world, right?"

(That would be a sound plan, except for the fact that the Kelbrid would need a place to rendevous. That would have to be a planetary system. They're scared of deep space - we know that much. They don't leave any planetary orbit until they're ready to scout or strip mine a new planet. Any EMP, or _any _bomb for that matter, big enough to disable their fleet would most certainly destroy any planet they were staging at. Not to mention the fact that any believable, inhabited planet they might stage from is probably going to be close enough to the sun to make it go nova. Even an EMP has enough juice to destabelize a star.)

"Oh. Well, wait? Why don't we do that?" he asked.

I almost yelled at him out of frustration. (Do what, Marco?)

"Make a star go nova. That is, use it as a ready-made bomb. You guys can do that, right?" he asked.

(Yes, Marco, we can. We wouldn't, but we could. Were you listening? We can't go blowing up a solar system in order to wipe out the Kelbrid. Too many innocents would die. We could end up wiping out an entire race.)

"Are you telling me there are no uninhabited systems out there? No solar system, out of millions, is suitable for this trap?" he asked me incredulously, and I resisted the urge to doubt myself.

(There are thousand of solar systems just like that. Useless systems that it definitely wouldn't matter if we turned them into a blazing nebula. But the Kelbrid, dumb as they are, know better than to step into an obvious trap like that. They'll know that it makes no sense to stage their attack from a planet they don't control when there's any number of closer planets that they _do _have control of,) I told him. (Now, I really have to get back to -)

Jake stepped back into the hologram and held up his hand. "Ax, I respect and like you. I even might love you, man, you know that. So let me ask you this - do you have a better idea? If we can get the Kelbrid battle groups to an uninhabited, inconsequential system, are you telling me you won't blow it up for us?"

(No, not at all. Like I said, it's a sound plan, _if_ we could get them there. We can't, plain and simple,) I said.

"_You_ can't. _We_ can," Marco said. "These things will believe any story I come up with." I looked to Jake for some support. This plan was just _not_ going to work - he had to see that. He saw me looking and shrugged.

(So, you think this will work as well, Prince Jake?) I asked. (You are asking me to blow up a sun. I've trusted you a million times before and I'll do so again, but -)

"No buts, Ax. This will work. We'll keep you posted," Jake said quickly, almost dismissively. I quickly glanced around to see if my deck officers were listening to their captain being talked to like a child, which they were. I suppressed my sudden anger towards the two of them, reminding myself that they'd saved my life a hundred times over.

(If you come up with a feasable plan, I promise to run it by Andalite high command with my seal of approval. Until then, this is all just speculation. Now if you'll excuse me, I have to run damage diagnostics for the ships under my command. Some of us are out fighting a real fight instead of a pretend one.) I immediately felt regret at the words, but as I'd said before, command was a position of few friends. I simply _could not_ afford to have my men doubt me, even for a second. Jake and I had disagreed before, and he would understand. After all, I _had _given him the green light to set up his fantasy plan.

Jake didn't look angry, didn't say anything regrettable, but the look in his eye scared me, even through a hologram. "We'll let you know where and when the ambush is going to happen," he said in a cold voice, and cut the transmission. I left the bridge to go to my quarters to think on this unsettling turn of events, and kept my stalk eyes pointed behind me, making sure my crewmen paid attention to their duties and not to their scorned and disturbed prince.


	12. Chapter 11 Decisions, Decisions

Chapter 11

**Jake**

After hanging up with Ax, I wanted to go into seclusion for a little while and gather my thoughts. I'd never been so blatantly at odds with him, and it bothered me deeply. Unfortunately, I didn't have that luxury…there were a hundred things that needed my attention, and soon. I made myself a mental priority list, and got to it.

"All right," I said to everyone who was on the bridge with me. "We've got to think fast. First thing's first – does everyone have a different Kelbrid acquired? " Everyone nodded an affirmative. "What'd you do with our captives, Dron?" I asked.

(All secured in the rear cargo hold. I've already changed all the access codes to our own, so they're stuck back there until we let them out. Unless you just want to open the cargo doors and vent them into space,) he said nonchalantly, spinning a hand-held shredder around his finger like some bizarre cowboy. I analyzed his tone to see if he was joking, and came to the conclusion that he wasn't. Marco looked amused; Cassie looked horrified.

"Nope. We don't do things like that, not even to our enemies," I told him flatly.

He stopped spinning the shredder, and put three of his eyes on me. As far as I knew, this was an Andalite expression of disbelief. (Not even Yeerks?) he said, his tone matching the expression.

"Not even Yeerks," I repeated. He scuffed his rear hoof, which either meant disbelief of disdain. "I did it once – mass murder. It was justified, it was logical, and it almost destroyed me. Never again."

Dron looked like he might argue the point, but he didn't. When he began twirling his gun again, I assumed he was done. "So, we're six morph-capables in possession of a Kelbrid messenger ship. We can fudge a little time here, but not much. So – any ideas?" Opening up the floor to my friends was always my preferred way of coming up with a plan. Marco would whine, Rachel would verbally spar with him, Tobias and Cassie would ignore those two…but through all of it, I'd get valuable input.

To my surprise, Marco started being productive right off the bat. "We need to decide what to do with our prisoners, first. Shuttle them over to the brig on _Red Feathers_ or strand them on some planet, it doesn't matter. We _cannot_ have that distraction aboard while we're playing pirate, though," he said. I was impressed, but then he ruined it in typical Marco fashion. "I say we teach them to dance and sell 'em to Barnum and Bailey, but that's just me."

Rachel reached over Tobias to try and head-slap him, but Marco was too quick. Even Rachel couldn't _completely_ hide the smirk on her face, though. "He's dumb, but he's right. Before we go anywhere, we've got to get rid of them. Does this ship's computer have anything that might help us pretend to be Kelbrid?"

Dron answered her. (The captain of this vessel kept meticulous logs, both audio and visual. We will be able to study them, and emulate. For simple ship-to-ship communications, I can hack and splice the existing logs into several pre-programmed messages. Hailing other Kelbrid vessels, sending simple messages – these things can be in our computer, ready to send at a moment's notice. That will eliminate the need for us to scramble into morphs if we are surprised by the Kelbrid.)

Tobias whistled. Rachel said, "Nice!" I was reminded of the intelligence and versatility that Ax had always brought to our group, and a pang of regret hit me again for the way Ax and I had just spoken to each other. I shoved it aside – I'd apologize later. For now, we had things to do.

(The actual, scheduled meetings with the battle groups is another matter entirely,) Dron said. (Those will have to be in person. We will have to be perfect in our imitation of the Kelbrid – if we are perceived as anything other than what we claim to be, we'll be killed. The Kelbrid, while stupid, will not be careless about this stage of their operation.)

Marco slapped his forehead. "So basically, if we don't play our roles as a completely unknown race perfectly, we'll be murdered. Awesome, should be easy."

Cassie spoke up. "How long until we have to make first contact?" she asked Dron.

(Approximately three Earth weeks. We can arrive a little early or a little late. Their – our - mission is dependent on several things, and precise timing was not possible for the Kelbrid to factor in.)

She smiled, as if this were good news. "See, Marco? When have we ever had three weeks to get ready for _anything_?"

If it had been anybody else, he'd have had a sarcastic remark ready. Since it was Cassie, he smiled a bit and said, "That's true." He looked around pointedly at all of us. "See? You jokers should have listened to me, been in my movies when you had the chance. Now you're going to have to suffer through the abridged version of _Acting for Dummies_ from me."

(Ha!) a thought-speak laugh bounced around the bridge so loudly that we all jumped. Dron managed to looked a little abashed. (My apologies. Dummies. That is a funny word, is it not?) That lightened the mood quite a bit, and everyone had a good chuckle. Andalites – who could ever guess what they were going to find amusing?

I got serious before everyone else, but I couldn't one-hundred-percent hide the grin. "All right, folks. Dron, how long until you have this ship fully operational?"

He thought for a brief moment. (At least two hours. Six hours, on the outside. The computer is fully functional, as are life support and communications. The engines have failsafes to prevent destruction in the event of an electro-magnetic overload, and by reversing the polarization of the actuators and servo-valves -)

"Two to six hours, got it," I gently cut him off. Andalite techno-babble always made my head spin. "Cassie, see if you can make sense of the navigational system and plot us a course to our first stop on this paper route. Rachel and Tobias, check out the weapons. Me and Marco will start studying the captain's logs to see if we can learn to act like these things." Everyone nodded and got to it.


	13. Chapter 12 Where Do We Go From Here?

Chapter 12

**Cassie**

Because of my status as a diplomat, both domestic and interstellar, I'd had the Andalite language-translator chip implanted in my head shortly after the conflict at the Taruff's home world. It was a fairly simple surgery, one I was once again glad to have gone through. I knew Jake had gotten it too, although at the time, it wasn't particularly pressing for him to do so. In retrospect, it was super-important – this mission we were on wouldn't be possible without them. It took a few minutes, but the unintelligible symbols of the Kelbrid I was looking at on the holo-display translated themselves and started making sense.

After I ascertained where the first of our four meetings were to take place, I plotted us a meandering course there and saved it to the navigational system. We wouldn't take a straight line there, but we wouldn't make too many unnecessary detours, either. I was proud of it. My course would buy us a couple more days to hash out the intricacies of being Kelbrid without being suspicious. We _were_ supposed to be on a top secret mission – the stops I'd plotted could be easily explained as an attempt to throw off anyone trying to follow us.

I felt a hand on my shoulder, and knew it was Jake before I turned around. Only he could convey so much care in a single touch. I smiled and said, "We're all set. I'll have Dron look it over, but I think this is our course to the first rendezvous."

He didn't immediately say anything, so I finally turned to look up at him. He was studying my work with a slight smile. "You're pretty amazing, you know that?" he said softly. I tried not to blush. "We've been on this ship for a couple hours, and you've already managed to master the nuances of space flight on an unfamiliar, alien ship."

"Master it? No way. And anyway, Ax was the one who taught me," I said, still unable to take a compliment well.

"Yeah? Well the fact that you understood Ax while he was talking about interstellar travel impresses me even more." I could see that he wasn't going to stop until I agreed with him, so I put my hand on top of his and nodded my thanks.

We both turned as we heard Marco raise his voice. He was using the communications unit, a few terminals down from mine. "Yeah, well you need to get someone over there who can handle that bunch of idiots!" he was fuming. I suppressed a smile – I could see the Admiral's side profile in the hologram he was yelling at. Typical Marco, raging at the leader of the free world's space forces like he was an intern on one of his movie sets. "You send that squadron into battle the way they are, none of them are going to come back!" I couldn't make out what Silas said in reply, but Marco made a disgusted face and cut the communication without a word of farewell.

He noticed me and Jake looking his way, and shook his head. "I just don't _get_ it! Voodoo might very well be the best pilots from around the world, but they are in no shape to go up against Kelbrid swarms."

Tobias, done with his task of getting familiar with the weapons, spoke up. "Why do you care? We've got a new mission. You won't be flying with them, anyway."

Marco ignored Rachel's 'Amen!' "I care because I'm in charge of them. Whether I'm flying with them or not doesn't make a difference."

Jake cleared his throat. "They're the military's problem. We've got our own. Here's the good news – I acquired the captain of this ship, and because I've got the translator chip implant, I speak Kelbrid. The only other Kelbrid that might be expected to speak at these meet-and-greets is the second-in-command, which Dron acquired. As far as I can tell, though, the captain doesn't go anywhere without a compliment of guards." He pointed to Marco, then Rachel, then Tobias. "That's you three. You need to study the video logs hard. How do Kelbrid act when they're tense? When they're relaxed? Do they lead the captain, or the other way around? You've got to be indistinguishable from the real thing."

I noticed he'd left me out of the equation, and I made a mental note to ask him what I'd be doing while the rest of them were putting themselves in mortal danger. I didn't have to wait, though. "Cassie will be here on the ship, with possibly the hardest job out of all of us. She's got to play communications officer, because she'd the only other person with an implant. But she's also going to have to be pretending to be all of the other stations while we're gone – remember, this ship is supposed to be run by a crew of eight. While we're on the other ships, relaying our own rendezvous point instead of theirs, it's important that they think there's still a bunch of Kelbrid on this ship."

(And what _is_ that rendezvous, Prince Jake?) Dron asked. (I haven't found any systems even remotely close to what we need.)

Jake sighed. "I don't know yet. We've got a little while to figure it out. All I know is that we are going to have to find one – and if we can't find one close, we're going to have to convince the Kelbrid to go out of their way, somehow. I don't have that figured out yet." Everyone kind of looked at the floor. "That's our plan right now – get them to a bomb, either ready-made in some sun, or something the Andalites come up with. I'm open to alternatives, but I really don't see any other way to take out hundreds of Kelbrid battleships at once."

"Not to pile on more doubt, Jake, but even if we find someplace to do it, we've got to get Ax to agree to it. And he's _not_ stoked on the idea of blowing up a solar system," Rachel pointed out.

(If I may?) Dron said. Jake made a go-ahead gesture. (Prince Aximili is right to have reservations about this plan. Any number of things could happen when we destroy a star. Sario rips and at least one black hole are likely to result from an exploding or imploding star, especially one which is prematurely destabilized. The fabric of space _and _time will be affected, and we have no way of predicting how deeply. For example, if a Z-space rift spirals out from the explosion – a likely scenario – and hits another star in a neighboring system, it could set off a chain reaction. Of course, we can plan the location to make this unlikely, but Z-space physics are very complex, sometimes impossible to predict. Prince Aximili is wise to use this plan as a last resort – it could very well mark the end of everything, not just the Kelbrid fleet.)

"I still don't understand why we can't just set a huge EMP bomb up in deep space, away from everything. No risk of any supernovas happening, because there wouldn't be any stars around," Rachel said. Dron had been explaining to her the effects of the EMP that the _Vigilance_ had set off, and she liked it. I'd heard her use the phrase 'taser for a spaceship,' more than once.

(That would be best, but there are two problems with that idea. One, it would take Andalite engineers months to construct and transport one big enough to do what we're talking about. Two, the Kelbrid hate deep space. It would be impossible to convince them to stage in empty space. They simply won't do it.)

"Whoa! Wait a minute!" Marco yelled. "Guys, we might be going about this the wrong way. All of our plans so far involve getting the Kelbrid to a bomb, right?" Everyone nodded. "Why not bring the bomb, or bombs, to the Kelbrid?"

"You need to start making sense, pronto," Rachel told him. He grinned and closed his eyes. I knew he was thinking, but he was also enjoying the suspense he was putting us in. "Dron. How big would an EMP have to physically be to knock out, say, ten percent of the Kelbrid fleet?"

(Relatively, not that large. Maybe the size of the human automobile Jake piloted to your movie studio. But taking out ten percent of the Kelbrid fleet would not be enough to give us a fighting chance.)

"Right. But what about forty percent?" he asked. I wasn't following. "A bomb big enough to take out the whole fleet at once would have enough juice to blow up any nearby suns, right? But what if we could plant a smaller bomb on each of the battleships we're supposed to visit?"

Jake caught on and smiled. "And set them off sequentially! Marco, you're a genius! Several smaller bombs would have the same effect, without the negative side-effects!"

Dron did not sound so excited. (The theory is sound, but putting it into practice will be difficult. We will have to conceal bombs the size an automobile on Kelbrid warships. Whoever detonates the bombs will have to be close…too close to escape the effects of the blast. Depending on the positioning of their ships in battle formation, we might be able to disable as much as eighty percent of their fleet…but if all the ships we visit are clustered together on one end of the formation, several EMPs would be redundant, and wouldn't do the kind of damage we need to have a fighting chance.)

"We can take steps to make sure that doesn't happen," Tobias said. "We're the ones delivering the rendezvous points – we can give each ship different coordinates to make sure they're not bunched together." Everyone started talking excitedly at once, pointing things out, discounting ideas as soon as they were brought up. Jake looked at me and smiled – Marco had given him an alternative to the mass destruction that Ax was so opposed to. I knew that smile well, and it made me smile – now that we had a workable theory everyone agreed with, we would hammer it out into a plan and stick to it. Just like the good old days.


	14. Chapter 13 Building a Plan

Chapter 13

**Ax**

I was in my quarters, absentmindedly feeding as I tried to come up with a way to move forward. I was worried. Not so much about being at odds with Prince Jake – that had happened before, and would happen again. I was more concerned with the fact that, with or without my approval, he would absolutely go as far as destroying a solar system in order to win the fight. I'd seen it time and again during the Yeerk invasion of Earth – his 'win at all costs' attitude toward war. I had admired it, and some of that philosophy had even rubbed off on me. (Probably why I'm in the position I am right now,) I admitted to myself. But if Prince Jake was willing to sacrifice his own people and parts of his own planet to win, I almost didn't want to think about how far he'd go in some corner of space where humans would be unaffected. Not for the first time, I forced myself to consider what I would do if Prince Jake went too far. If my people shunned him for making a harsh decision, one that cost not human lives, but Andalite lives, what would I do? Who would I stand by, if forced to choose a side?

My musings were interrupted by Halamor, the _Fire Flower's_ communications officer. (Prince Aximili, I have a transmission flagged for you. It has all the proper codes, but it's originating from a Kelbrid craft. I have not responded – shall I transfer it to your quarters, or ignore it altogether?) I smiled internally. Young Halamor was quickly learning to adapt.

(Put it through. Very good work, Halamor,) I said mildly. Positive reinforcement was a very human concept, but it was working quite well for me when I employed it upon young officers under my command. The hologram projector in the corner hummed to life, and Prince Jake's face popped into view.

I relaxed instantly. He was not calling for an extension on our earlier quarrel – I could see that instantly from his facial expression. I smiled with my eyes, and I hope he'd take it as a sign of truce. (Prince Jake, it is good to see you.)

"You too, Ax. Look, we may have found a way around the big bang plan. I want to run it by you, see what you think." I tried not to show my relief, but I nodded. It seemed I had been worried over nothing – Prince Jake had taken my opinion into careful consideration, after all. He went on over the next few moments to explain their rapidly evolving plan, one that I had much more faith in. If anyone could infiltrate these creatures and lead them into a trap, it was my fellow Animorphs.

As Prince Jake got to the part of the plan where they would actually meet up with the first Kelbrid craft, the coordinates he gave me rang a slight bell. (Please hold a moment, Prince Jake.) I rapidly searched the memory of the ship's computer, back to where I had first encountered the rogue Yeerk posing as a Kelbrid. The two coordinates were very similar. I called up all related data. (What is the name of the ship you are to rendezvous with?)

Prince Jake paused as he asked someone off-screen. "In English, it's called KSC-1145-C."

I cross-checked this with my stored data. I almost fell to the ground in disbelief. (We may have hit the jackpot,) I told him, using one of Marco's many catchphrases. (If you can believe it, we may have an inside man – so to speak – on that vessel.) I went on to explain my earlier chance meeting with Harvis 1030, and the fact that the ship they were to encounter was under his control.

Prince Jake's eyes narrowed into suspicion. "I'm not so sure I like that, Ax. I mean, I can see the Yeerks wanting to stop the Kelbrid, but collaborating with Andalites? And humans? I kind of don't see that happening."

(I, too, share your concern,) I told him honestly. (But _he_ reached out to _me_. We could have pounded each other's forces into dust, but he backed down. Prince Jake, you have to understand I am by far the most hated Andalite in the Yeerk Empire. It would not have surprised me if this Yeerk had thrown away all of his work, let alone the chance at stopping the Kelbrid, just to rid the galaxy of me. But he backed down and proposed an alliance, and this was _after_ he knew who I was. I will never, ever, trust a Yeerk completely, but this is one Yeerk we can work with. At least long enough to attain our goals. I certainly don't see how we're going to hide any sort of destructive device aboard any of these ships without his help.)

Prince Jake looked torn. Like me, every fiber of his being was screaming at him over the idea of working with a Yeerk. Like me, he couldn't see any way around it. "All right. Okay. Do you think you could get in touch with him, let him work out a plan from his end? We're going to have our hands full over here."

(Yes. He left me contact information. By the numbers you've given me -) I stopped for a moment to bring up a picture of a starfield in the hologram – (You will drop out of Z-space here, at this time. This is where I will meet you, and we will move to the next step of the plan then.)

"Which is?" he prompted me.

(I don't know, but I _will_ know by the time I meet you. I'm coming in person, Prince Jake – this is the spearhead, and it's where I need to be.)

Prince Jake smiled. "I agree. Your people will be fine – we need you. Bad. Dron is great, but we need the Animorphs together on this one."

I felt a pride I hadn't felt in a while. It was good to be listened to and respected. It was even better to be needed. (Until we meet, Prince Jake. Good luck.)

"You too, Ax man. To all of us," he said, and closed the transmission.

I breathed a heavy sigh of relief. It felt so _good_ to have a plan of action, no matter how numerous and difficult the tasks ahead. I started mentally preparing for the terrible task of contacting a Yeerk to ask for help.


	15. Chapter 14 Ax's Input

A/N – Sorry about the delay! Just as I decide to finish this story after all this time, up jumps some horrible strain of the flu that actually put me in the hospital for a while. Don't worry about me, though – I'm back and better than ever. Hope you're all enjoying!

Chapter 14

Rachel

I felt the now-familiar _clink-bump_ sensation of another ship docking with ours in zero gravity, and suppressed a grin. The Ax-man was about to be back with us. He was the only one, other than me, who found something refreshing about a throw-down. At times, he seemed to be the only other member of our group _born_ for the up-close-and-personal, _mano y mano _fighting that was sure to come. We had dropped out of Z-space a couple of light years away from our meet-up with the first of four Kelbrid battle cruisers, and as promised, a small Andalite fighter had been waiting for us. We hadn't had any contact with anyone since Jake's last communication with Ax, but I wasn't worried. In all the years I'd known him, Ax had never failed us or broken a promise in any way.

The docking bay/cargo hold on our ship was empty, save for me, Jake, and Tobias. Turned out we didn't have to worry about the Kelbrid we'd taken prisoner and stored in the cargo hold – by the time we'd opened it up (me, Jake, and Marco in battle morphs,) all of our guests had used those nasty arm blades on themselves, or each other. We'd closed the doors and opened the cargo hold, and only Cassie had shed a tear as they'd drifted away. We'd been sleeping in shifts, and right now it was Dron, Marco, and Cassie's turn to rest. The slight tremor that had gone through the ship would probably be enough to rouse Cassie and Marco – Dron was already on the bridge, monitoring all of our systems during the transfer of personnel.

After the pressure had been equalized between the two ships, Ax strode in purposefully. He glanced around with his stalk eyes, scanning the scenery instinctually, but stopped long enough to grace us with a real, Andalite smile. Dron was an ally, and we'd all gotten to know him fairly well in the short time we'd been together, but Ax was a _friend_.

We exchanged greetings, and started talking shop almost immediately. Marco and Cassie joined us almost immediately, and we started to have a planning session right there in the cargo hold, without anyone calling it to order. After so many years of fighting together, I guess it was just second nature. Everyone had questions for Ax – it had been our plan to bomb the individual Kelbrid ships, but we'd pretty much left it to Ax to figure out _how_ to do it. He didn't disappoint us.

"Where's the weapon?" Marco asked without preamble. "Did you bring it, or do we need to make another stop?"

(It's attached to us right now,) Ax told us, still smiling. (The Model 22 I came in. My crew modified it. To a casual inspection, it's a normal Model 22. It flies, it can even shoot. More importantly, though, it's an electro-magnetic explosion waiting to happen.)

"You flew over here in a bomb?" I asked, impressed.

He shrugged, the human way. Not for the first time, I wondered how much of his 'human' act was for our benefit, and how much of it was just a part of his personality now. (That's really all a spacecraft is, when you get down to it. An normal Model 22 releases more power when it explodes than a thermo-nuclear device from Earth. )

"Good," Jake said. "Now we just need a way to convince the Kelbrid to tuck it away in their ship and leave it there. Marco?"

Marco rubbed his hands together, like he'd just received a present. Which, in a way, he had. Showing off was one of Marco's specialties. "Easy. We caught this Andalite snooping around, and we had to take him out before he could spoil our plans. We brought the 22 for research. You know, to learn more about our – their - enemies?"

I looked to Ax. "You think that could work, Ax-man?" I asked. Marco _was_ pretty good at deception, but it was going to be up to the resident alien to decide if it could work.

(There are many variables,) he said hesitantly. (For instance, we know the Kelbrid are not a devious race. They are of limited intelligence – but we don't know their exact limitations. It _seems_ that they are just overly direct – we've seen that in their tactics. Would they accept it if we brought them an Andalite fighter to study? Or is that sort of thing just so far outside of their character that we would be alerting them to sabotage? Are they even capable of understanding internal sabotage?)

Jake put his hand up, his brows drawn together in the middle. "We get it, Ax. From what I've seen in the ship's computer, you're right about the Kelbrid. They're not dumb, per se…they're just super-direct. They absolutely _do not_ trust other species, and I don't know if that will work for us or against us in this plan. Will their distrust of Andalites make them want to study your technology? Or will even having it aboard one of their vessels be too much for them? I just don't know which way they're going to go."

Cassie raised her hand, like she was in school, and I couldn't help but smile and feel love for the girl. She'd battled for years, fought some of the worst the galaxy had to offer, and she was still timid ol' Cassie. "When I was watching the captain's video logs to get a sense of the Kelbrid, I kind of got a sense of arrogance," she said softly, looking around to the rest of us. Everybody nodded their agreement, that they'd felt it too, and she continued. "They – we – were the cream of the Kelbrid crop. The elite, chosen for this secret mission. I think if we were to play that card, we might be able to bully the other Kelbrid into doing what we say. Someone that radiates authority and expertise is hard to disagree with."

"Cassie, you nailed it. When we get back, I want you in on my next movie as the casting director. Nobody can read people like you," Marco said.

"I guess we wing it, then," Jake said. Nobody disagreed with him. "Of course, we've got a little time before we actually have to _do_ it. Let's spend that time perfecting our roles. And Ax?" Ax, already on his way to the bridge to meet up with Dron, stopped and turned both stalk eyes back to Jake. "Welcome back, man," Jake smiled. I reached over and patted his shoulder, giving him a grin.

(Thank you, Prince Jake,) Ax said with a broad Andalite smile of his own.


	16. Chapter 15 Harvis 1030

Chapter 15

**Tobias**

Rachel and I, both in Kelbrid morph, swaggered confidently onto the alien battlecruiser. Jake was right behind us, and Dron and Marco were right behind him. Cassie and Ax were both back on the messenger ship, trying to make it look like we still had the full crew aboard. An enormous Kelbrid warrior was waiting for us at the end of the corridor, and I actually had to fight my Kelbrid instincts for a moment. The body I was in wanted to skitter to the side, show submission to the larger, insectile creature. I kept up the swag, however, reminding myself that the body I inhabited was superior in rank to the guy in front of me. But _man_, he was _big_.

When we reached him, Jake screeched some high-pitched, chittering sounds at him. He bowed his head and replied in the same language. I wished fervently that I had understood the exchange, but luckily, we'd figured out that in the presence of a superior like a captain, entourage did not speak. Ever. As the big guy turned and led us deeper into the bowels of the enormous Kelbrid battleship, Dron translated.

(Everything is fine. Jake told him to take us to the commander, and the Kelbrid told him that he would comply. It is a standard exchange – the Kelbrid don't use passwords or codes.) Some of his Andalite arrogance slipped through, even in thought speech, and I hoped he wouldn't let it cloud his judgement.

(Yeah, well, they won't need a password to filet us if we don't play this just right,) Marco commented, and I silently agreed.

We followed the Kelbrid guide deeper and deeper into the ship. It seemed to go on forever, every passage looking completely alike to me, and I realized belatedly that if things went wrong, there would be no way in hell we'd be able to find our way out.

Dron spoke after a long silence, and the note of near-panic in his voice sent a flood of alien chemicals similar to adrenaline through my body. (Prince Jake, we have been traveling for thirty-five minutes. I have been in morph for a total of forty-six minutes. If we don't arrive soon, I will have to demorph at some point on this vessel.)

(It's cool, it's okay,) Jake said calmingly. (We'll deal with it if we have to. This Yeerk we're supposed to be meeting up with may just have to help out an Andalite more directly than he'd like, and provide you with a place to demorph.)

I spoke in private thought-speech to Rachel. (How in the _hell_ did we overlook the fact that Dron still has a morphing time limit? Are we losing our edge?)

(Nah. We just know we're bad-ass enough to handle it,) Rachel said. If I didn't currently have compound eyes, I'd have rolled them. I repeated my question for Jake – it seemed like a serious oversight on our part, and I wanted to be reassured that we wouldn't let anything like it happen again.

(Well,) Jake began, a little abashed, (Thing is, I _did_ think of it. I didn't bring it up because we couldn't plan in advance for it, anyway. And we need Dron with us. Ax can't go, and the Kelbrid captain _always_ travels with four guards.)

(Dude, that's reckless, even for you,) I said, a little hot. (What about Cassie? She doesn't have a time limit. Why didn't she come and Dron stay?)

Before he could answer, the guide stopped at a doorway that, to me, looked exactly like about a hundred we'd already passed up. He spoke again, and Jake replied with a curt gesture of his forearm blade. I had to drop the issue with Jake for now, because he needed to concentrate. But as soon as I had a chance, I planned to have a chat with him about it.

We fanned out into the antechamber, in which a single Kelbrid was positioned at the head of an obsidian table. He screeched at the guy who'd led us here, who retreated and closed the door behind him.

"Well, well," he said in an odd, high-pitched, echoing version of English. "You came. I didn't know if you had it in you, Aximili."

Jake replied in thought-speech. (Prince Aximili isn't here. We're acting on his behalf.)

The Kelbrid tilted his head at an extreme angle. "You're human? Who are you?"

(Jake.) He didn't have to be more specific than that. Jake was at _least_ as infamous in Yeerk circles as Ax.

"_Bzz Bzz Bzz,_"the Yeerk/Kelbrid exclaimed. I guess it was the Kelbrid version of a laugh. "Excellent. I wasn't sure if an Andalite would have the steel in him to do what needed to be done. I _know_ you've got it in you, Jake. Jake, the Yeerk Killer." He said this last part not with hatred, but what sounded like affection.

Jake caught it, too. (You're willing to work with me?) he blurted.

"Of course," the Yeerk said. "I am Harvis 1030, and I like to think that I am a little more…_enlighted_…than most of my brethren. Andalites have a tendency to be a little moralizing when mass murder is involved. Now that I know it is you, I am several times more comfortable. Humans are absolutely _brutal_. We will work well together."

(You say Andalites are moralizing? I say Yeerks are dense fools,) Dron sneered. Jake sent him a quick message to shut up, not to make an enemy of this Yeerk, but it was already put out there. We waited to see how Harvis would react.

"You may want to think on it a little harder, my Andalite _friend_," this last word dripped with at least as much disgust as Dron had thrown out. "Your people and the humans are allies of convenience right now. When there is no threat to unite you, it's going to be interesting to see how quickly your alliance dissolves. Because it will."

(Enough,) Jake said forcefully as Rachel bristled with a reply unspoken. (We didn't come here for this. You understand the gist of our plan, Harvis?) Harvis made his Kelbrid puppet nod. (And do you agree to help us?) Again, he nodded. Jake hesitated, something he didn't often do. It seemed like he didn't know what else there was to say.

Marco stepped in seamlessly. (What can you do on your end to make this run smoothly, Harvis?) He sounded slightly sarcastic, as if he found it ironic the Yeerk had a name. They had been a faceless enemy for so _long_.

"A few different ways. The battle fleet is staggered according to location instead of being evenly distributed, and this is a good thing. I've manipulated their high command into putting an enormous portion of the fleet under my direct command."

(How much of the fleet?) Jake asked.

"Just under half of it will be directly around this vessel when the first EMP detonates," he said with gloating in his voice, like a poker player laying down four aces. If I'd had the right mouth parts, I'd have whistled.

(That's good,) Jake said, trying not to sound impressed. (What else?)

Harvis opened his mandibles wide in surprise, but recovered quickly. "We are isolated from the other battle groups – that's the whole reason the messenger ship you are on is necessary. I _can_, however, let high command know that you captured several Andalite fighter craft. I will then go on to convince them that they need to be distributed throughout the whole fleet to be studied. That way, you will not have to try to sneak them aboard anywhere."

(So we should trust you with the entirety of our plan, then?) Dron asked sardonically. (We should put the life or death of my homeworld in the hands of a Yeerk?)

"You have no choice," Harvis said coldly. "If you try to distribute the bombs throughout the fleet yourself, you will fail. There is no sneaking Andalite technology aboard Kelbrid craft, and you will not be able to convince them to study the ships, like you think you will. It is not your place, it is not your mission, and a true Kelbrid would never think that independently. The second you recommend it, you'll be found out."

(Why wouldn't we be able to sneak Andalite technology aboard?) Marco asked. I knew Marco well enough to know he was just trying to poke holes in Harvis' story, seeing if he could sense any deception in him.

"Because all but the smallest Kelbrid craft are equipped with sensors that detect any foreign energy sources. Their distrust of other species makes it a standard thing. They don't want anyone other than them on board their ships without knowing about it."

(Sounds legit,) Marco said in private thought-speech to our team. (I think we gotta trust him.)

(I agree,) Rachel said. (Whether he comes through or not, we have to take a stand anyway. Doesn't sound like we can do anything else _but_ put it in his hands.)

(Tobias? Dron?) Jake was asking for a vote.

(No,) Dron said. (I do not trust him.)

(Sorry, Dron, but I disagree. I don't trust him a hundred percent, but nothing's a hundred percent in war. This is our best shot – we gotta take it,) I said.

(Four to one,) Jake said. (I vote yes. Even if Cassie and Ax voted no, yes is still a majority.) He switched thought-speech to include Harvis again. (Okay. The other three bombs are located in orbit above the planet you're staging at with the rest of the fleet. We were gonna pick them up on our way to the next rendezvous, but I guess we'll leave them to you.)

Dron spoke privately to us again. (Prince Jake, ask him where I can demorph and remorph. If it takes us as long to get back to our ship as it did to get here, I will not make the two-hour limit.)

Jake asked the question. Harvis hesitated. "It isn't possible. I told you about the energy sensors. They would definitely pick up the energy fluctuations the morphing technology emits."

Nobody had a thing to say for about a full ten seconds, then everyone started talking at once. Urgently. Dron, trapped in a Kelbrid body? No. Couldn't happen.

Harvis stopped the cacophony of voices by tapping his claws on the table in front of him. Hard. "I can't believe this. You idiots should have thought about this before stepping foot aboard this ship. Shut UP!" he barked at Rachel's angry reply. "I can't believe we just met, and you're already risking my position. Here's the plan – I'll lead you to an escape pod. Between the time you leave the ship and the time I am confronted about jettisoning a pod, I will try to think of something." He did as he said he would, and within a few minutes, we were floating back towards our own ship. Dron was demorphed, and we were pretty confident that Harvis was devious enough to allay suspicion.

Everyone kind of talked the usual post-game chatter, winding down after a stressful mission, but I was lost in my own thoughts. Why would Harvis risk the bigger picture to save a sworn enemy from being trapped in morph? Any other Yeerk would have reveled in the fact that an Andalite would suffer. And the much bigger question I had, the one I couldn't believe Marco, Jake, and even Dron had missed – if the Kelbrid could detect alien technology, how was Harvis getting the Kandrona rays he needed every three days?


	17. Chapter 16 Confrontation

A/N – If you're enjoying this fic, please leave a short review for me. This will help me form the story around what people want to see…not to mention, it's hard to stay motivated when the traffic says people are definitely scoping the new chapters, but no one's reviewing. Call me a crybaby, but I take it a little personally…like the readers are saying it's not worth their time to review. So, that said – if you want quality chapters fast, click that review button! Takes two seconds! Thanks, enjoy!

Chapter 16

**Tobias**

Everyone's attitude was pretty laid back when we got back to the ship, which kind of surprised me. We had almost blown it, big time. Marco and Rachel were joking, which normally didn't bother me. But seriously, was I the only one who saw how close we'd come to disaster? As the gang filed forward into the ship, I grabbed the sleeve of Jake's morphing outfit, keeping him behind in the cargo bay. No one noticed but Dron.

(Prince Jake? Should we debrief and discuss our next move?) he asked politely. Under the surface of that polite tone was something else, though…I thought it might be annoyance.

Jake studied me for a short second, and I guess he saw enough seriousness there. "In a minute, Dron. Get us into Z-space first, would you?"

As soon as we were alone, he gave me a long look. "So, how bad are you about to smash me?" he asked with a humorless smile.

I shook my head. "Man, you know I don't want to dress you down, but I got a problem with you right now." He nodded, as if he'd expected this. "You know what I'm going to ask. Why didn't Cassie go with us instead of Dron? The fact that you thought of it when none of us did makes me feel worse, instead of better. Because you _always_ do what's right for the group. So what's up with you, man? Why would you endanger the mission, and all of us? Especially Dron?" I didn't mean to, but I was raising my voice as my speech when on. "I mean, we've always been reckless, but never on purpose." He still didn't speak. "Well? Give me something!"

He smiled a sad smile. "Dude, you know you've gotten a _lot_ tougher over the years." I shook my head angrily, not wanting him to deflect the question. He let out a long, deep breath. "This stays between us?" he asked, which cooled my temperature a few degrees. Jake normally didn't do secrets.

When I didn't reply, he sighed again and slumped against the nearest bulkhead. "I guess I can't ask you to keep this from everyone. But I'm going to anyway." He closed his eyes, gathering his thoughts, and he just looked…_sad_.

I made a decision. "I won't tell, man. But I need to know what's going on with you." I resolved that if it was something that everyone needed to know, I'd convince him to tell them himself.

"It's Cassie," he said simply. "I'm trying to keep her out of harm's way as much as possible. She's here, because she feels like she has to be, but we both know this isn't who she is. For years, now, she's been railroaded into fighting. We all have, but it's been hardest on her. I know we're all sick of it…but I just don't know how much more killing she can handle before she breaks."

I tried to understand where he was coming from, and I did. But Jake was never one to get sentimental when there was work to be done. We did the best we could, and dealt with the consequences later, when it was safe. "I get that, Jake, but what do you think Cassie would say if she knew you endangered the mission to keep her out of the action?"

"I _know_. It's just…there's no safety net this time, man. If one of us dies, the Ellimist won't step in this time to make it right. I watched Cassie die once, back on Xylen. So did you. You _have_ to understand," he said, his voice pleading.

"I get it! I know how you feel about Cassie, because I feel the same way about Rachel! Would you be okay with it if I asked you to keep _her_ out of the fight, just because I don't want to feel what it's like to have her hurt? Have her dead? Again?"

Jake smiled, but it didn't reach his eyes. "You know there's no way either one of us could keep Rachel out of a fight, short of hog tying her."

I continued on. I didn't want to kick him while he was down, but we needed him at one hundred percent. "You need some perspective, Jake. Why are we here? You know if we don't step in and try to stop the Kelbrid, it's only a matter of time before they get to Earth. And they won't even have the snowball's chance in hell that we had when we were resisting the Yeerks. Without Ax and Elfangor, we'd be controllers or dead right now. That's why _I'm_ here. That's why I'm fighting. They gave up everything for us when we needed them – how could I live with myself if I didn't do the same?"

"I know. Maybe…I don't know, Tobias. Maybe I'm losing my edge. Maybe I'm dulling down. It was a bad call to risk Dron like that. Maybe it's time to let Ax have a shot at leading," he said softly. He looked beaten.

"Nope. It's not, and you know it. We've been through this before. We need you, and you don't want it. But when has it ever been different? This was luckily just a wake-up call. Do a gut check, get your priorities straight."

He nodded. Then he surprised the hell out of me. "You know, I asked the Ellimist to bring Tom back. He said he couldn't. Simple as that. He made the memory of Tom leave my mind, while I was asking him for the rewards we earned at Xylen. I guess he did that so that I wouldn't push the issue and argue with him." I didn't say anything, giving him the chance to continue. He hadn't mentioned Tom since we defeated the Yeerks, and I sensed that this was something that he had to get off of his chest. "At first, when we got back to Earth and I realized what he'd done, I was pissed. I thought he was no better than Crayak, because I _know_ he could have given me Tom back if he'd wanted to. But now, slowly, I'm starting to think I understand why he did it."

"Because he knew you'd have to fight again. And he knew that if he gave you back the one thing that you had always been fighting for, you'd be less likely to fight now. He used you, and it was cold. I'm sorry, Jake."

"That's exactly what I was thinking. I want to say he's wrong, that I'd have fought anyway. Or he could have at least made me a deal – you know, I'd get Tom back as long as I did what I had to do. But honestly, man, I think he had me pegged. I think he knew that you guys were my family now, and I'd fight just as hard to protect you all."

"Especially Cassie," I said. Ax's voice interrupted us, informing us we were in Z-space and everyone was ready to talk about the mission. "So, you think you've gotten that perspective you needed?" I asked, as gently as I could.

I physically saw him steel himself, and that gave me confidence. He was ready. "Yeah. From now on, it's back to the old Jake. Win-at-all-costs."

I grinned and punched his arm. "Be superhuman. That's all we've ever asked of you, Big Jake," I said.


	18. Chapter 17 Conflict

A/N – One more time, (and for the _last_ time…promise,) I'm going to complain about the lack of reviews. Seriously, it wouldn't bother me if ffn didn't have the hit tracker…the last chapter alone has had over a dozen views from different people over the last 24 hours, and only two of those people reviewed. Seriously, even if you don't like the story, just say 'you suck.' Because right now, I feel like I'm writing this for three people, and I'm including myself in that. Thank you to Ta-dao for taking the time, and a special thanks to The King of Soda, who not only faithfully reviews, but also takes the time to help me with plot holes and issues, keeps me writing in character, and generally helps me keep the big picture in mind. Anyway, that's my rant for the day. As always, enjoy!

Chapter 17

**Marco**

I hate space.

_Especially_ Zero-space. There's even less to look at in Z-space than regular space. Ever been on a road trip that took you through a long stretch of nothing but pine trees? No billboards or buildings to break up the landscape? You know how you start to get all drowsy and your brain starts to feel dumb? That's what Z-space travel was like, except about a hundred times worse.

So maybe I was whining a little. Maybe I was doing a little complaining. That still didn't give Rachel the right to lock me in the Kelbrid bathroom.

I don't know exactly how the Kelbrid physically went to the bathroom, and I didn't want to know. But as to where they put it, it went all over the grated floor. Liquids streamed through the flooring into a holding tank, and the solids were immediately picked up by a tiny worker robot that I had dubbed 'the Poo-bot.' After taking one look at the…ahem, _facilities_, us humans had decided to risk our health by taking some of the homeostatic pills that kept us from having to eat, drink, or use the bathroom. The Andalites avoided the bathroom, because Ax had brought nutrient packs their fighter pilots used on long-term missions. Apparently, the Andalite body absorbed one hundred percent of it and produced no waste.

So it was pretty unlikely that anyone was going to discover me locked in there. I thought about morphing and using thought-speech to get some help getting out of there, but I didn't want to give Rachel the satisfaction. I had just decided to wait it out with no one but Poo-bot for company when the door swished open. Jake took a half a second to look _extremely _pleased and amused, then got serious just as quickly. "We need you on the bridge, asap. We got pulled out of Z-space prematurely, and we're being approached by an unknown vessel."

We hurried forward into the front of the ship, Jake already morphing. "Should I go Kelbrid too?" I asked, then answered my own question. "What good would that do? I don't speak their language."

We got to the bridge in time to see Ax furiously pressing buttons and interacting with the computers. "No, we needo cavee-" Jake started to say, but the morph had progressed too far. (We need to convince them that we're who we say we are and that we're on a top secret mission. Ax is sending all the codes we pulled off the computer, but they're not responding. I guess we're not sending the right ones.) His morph was finished, and he stood in front of the hologram projector. He signaled to Ax that he was ready, who in turn signaled Cassie. I hopped aside to make sure I was out of sight of the camera as Cassie pointed to Jake, letting him know he was on.

Jake spoke in the Kelbrid clicking, tea-kettle voice for almost thirty seconds. We all watched the two-way screen, the one where the other person on the hologram _should_ show up for communication, but it stayed black. (Prince Jake challenged the unknown ship. He asked them to send _their _clearance codes, or we'd get aggressive. It is a pretty impressive bluff – he sounded authoritative,) Ax translated for us. Several more seconds passed, and still they didn't answer.

I began paying attention to the fairly-distant ship that must have pulled us from Z-space. It seemed similar to other Kelbrid ships we'd seen, but there were differences. It was blocky, sure, but it just seemed less angular than typical Kelbrid design. It was black, like Kelbrid craft, but there were splashes of color along the hull that I could see even from this distance. "Jake, I'm not so sure they're Kelbrid," I whispered. That would explain a lot, especially why they weren't answering our call.

(Maybe not,) he replied in private thought-speech. (But they're not human or Andalite, either. So we've got to play this out the way a real Kelbrid ship would.) As he spoke, the other ship's engines fired up to intercept us, and that did it for me.

"Okay, they're definitely not Kelbrid. Whatever they use for fuel makes their engines glow green. That engine trail is definitely blue," I said.

"Weapons are primed and ready," Rachel reported. "They'll be in range in two minutes if they keep this same course."

(Prince Jake, what do we do?) Ax asked. I noted there was absolutely no stress in his tone, and his calmness seemed to settle over all of us. (I recommend we keep trying communications until they're in range, then fire upon them if they do not answer. We do not run, because Kelbrid would not run.)

(That's the plan, then,) Jake said quickly. Cassie pointed to him again, signaling that he was once again transmitting to the approaching ship. Dron translated. (Approaching ship, this is KSC-1221-D. Keep your distance and respond, or we will engage.)

As the ship got closer, it became more and more apparent that it wasn't Kelbrid. And it was also clear that they didn't have a benevolent agenda. (We're reading a fairly massive amount of weapon energy on that craft, but it's strange,) Ax said. (It's almost as if they're rapidly powering down and recharging their guns.)

"So what?" Rachel said. "They're obviously here to make a fight."

It hit me like a ton of bricks. "Jake! Keep trying to communicate, but start demorphing! Do it now!" I yelled.

"Shut up, Marco! We have to keep up the charade, even if it turns into a fight! These could be allies of the Kelbrid, and we can't ruin our act when we're this close. We've only got the one Kelbrid ship left to meet, and then- Hey!" Tobias was cut off as I made a snap decision and shoved Jake's still-Kelbrid body out of them frame.

"Cassie, am I live?" She nodded, a horrified expression on her face. I could tell what she was thinking – I'd just ruined everything we'd worked for. Maybe I had, but the final clue Ax had given me about the strange craft made me feel like I'd made the right decision. We'd only ever run into one other race that used oscillating weapons. Seconds away from firing range, the approaching ship turned away. "This is Marco! We're humans!" I said into the hologram receiver. I ignored Rachel's curses. "Please respond. If you are who I think you are, we're friends!"

We all held our breath as finally the hologram projector sprung to life. I almost passed out from relief when I saw the face on the other end. It was blue, it was scaly, and I would have kissed it where its mouth should have been if it were here in person. A cheer went up throughout the bridge – a _relieved_ cheer.

"You have a _lot_ of explaining to do," said Princess Amni'bel's holographic representation. I could hear the good humor in her voice.

"So do you! For starters, where did you get that ship? And what are you doing out here? How did you find us? And why did you almost kill us?"

She laughed that weird Taruff bark-of-a-laugh that came from behind the taut skin of her throat. "I will answer all of your questions, and you will answer a few of mine. But for now, let us just be grateful that we found each other. Would you and your companions object to my coming aboard?"

"No, but _you_ might object. We're really tight for space on this hunk of crap as it is. You don't look like you have that problem – should we come over to meet you on your new ship?" She inquired who was with me, and I answered that we were all together – me, Jake, Rachel, Tobias, Cassie and Ax. Her orange eyes glowed with delight at this, and officially invited us aboard her ship.


	19. Chapter 18 Before the Battle

A/N – Thank you to the reviewers! I'm telling you, getting reviews is like the trigger I need to pound out another chapter. Doesn't even matter what they say – just knowing people are reading motivates me to push it. So, thank you to uncutetomboy, The King of Soda, Ta-dao, and markrock18. Even if you're the only four reading, you're all the reason I need to finish this story and write my best. Thank you!

Chapter 18

**Cassie**

When we popped out of Z-space, at the place we would make our stand against the Kelbrid, I couldn't help but to gasp. I had seen a lot of incredible things in my lifetime, done things most people only dream about, and been places that made me wonder if I were crazy, if everything I knew was just in the imagination of a lunatic. The sight that greeted me at the rendezvous point was by far the most amazing, awe-inspiring thing I'd ever seen.

As far as my naked eye could see, scattered seemingly at random, were hundreds, maybe _thousands_, of ships. As impressive as that was, it wasn't what took my breath away – it was the _diversity_. Andalite ships – the huge, imposing Dome ships, the smaller (but still extremely formidable)_ Intrepid_-class ships, and several other enormous space vessels that were obviously Andalite but defied my identification -made up the bulk of the massive fleet. Human ships were also prevalent – whereas the Andalite craft were elegant, our own human ships were all business. Big battleships like _Red Feathers_, more of them than I'd thought we possessed, were positioned throughout the formation. There were also a lot of picket ships – fast, maneuverable, and deadly, they looked threatening even though they were motionless. Several of the human ships were nearly identical to the Yeerk vessels we'd spent years fighting – the relatively new United Nations Space Authority Force had rounded up all the derelict ships the Yeerks had abandoned in our orbit when they retreated, and obviously converted them for our own use. One of the closer ships to us looked suspiciously like a pregnant Blade ship. The Taruffs were also represented, as Amni'bel had promised. Their craft were something all their own. Sharp protrusions were all over the hulls of the larger ships, making them look like giant, spacegoing blowfish. I couldn't deduce any purpose for them other than sheer intimidation, but that didn't mean they weren't armed. Dotting every Taruff ship were the cannons they use to fire their strange but effective energy cannonballs.

In between this massive collection of assorted war machines, fighter craft of every kind swarmed to and fro. They gave an overall impression of a huge collective of hives with insects swarming around all of them. It was overwhelming, and I was overwhelmed.

"Would you take a look at that," Rachel breathed, awestruck.

"How do the Kelbrid even stand a chance against this?" Tobias commented, his tone similar to Rachel's.

(Now you understand what we are facing,) Ax said. He tried to keep his own tone level, and didn't quite succeed. Even he was impressed. (As large as this fleet is, it's only the equivalent of one of the Kelbrid battle groups. And they have four of them.)

When he said that, a shiver went down my spine. I didn't think of myself as a coward, but I felt extremely cowardly at that moment. I felt naked, somehow. _If we would have had any concept at all of what we were really up against this time, we would have stayed home and hid under our covers,_ I couldn't help thinking to myself.

"Well, all that means is they're going to have a _lot_ of useless metal floating around when they get here," Jake said. There was no waver in his voice. He emanated confidence. At that moment, I wished I were a mind-reader – I knew Jake well, maybe as well as anybody, but I wanted to know how much of that confidence was faked. Because the _what-ifs_ were running rampant in my own mind. _What if the EMPs don't work? What if we're betrayed by Harvis? What if the bombs don't disable as many Kelbrid ships as we think it will?_

Marco spoke up, but he still sounded out of breath. "Jake, we're all-in this time. This is everything we have to throw at them. This, as far as we know, is every fighting ship in the entire universe that belongs to the good guys."

"Yep. Good thing we did our job, right?" Jake replied. Any reply that would have met his statement was interrupted by the communicator going off.

The first call was from Ax's command ship, _Fire Flower_. They asked him to be on board for the upcoming fight. He informed them he'd get back to them with his decision, which surprised us all. We had all kind of assumed that Ax would definitely want to be with his own people for this.

The next call, right on the heels of the first, was from Amni'bel. She once again asked for our presence aboard her command ship, and Jake followed Ax's example by saying we'd get back to her. She started to raise her veil at this, the way she did when she felt insulted or distant, but she stopped herself. She bowed her head and thanked Jake for considering her request, and cut the communication.

Before we even had a chance to talk among ourselves, Admiral Silas hailed us from _Red Feathers_. He had the same request for us, and Jake gave the reply that was now becoming standard. It seemed as if everyone wanted us to be a part of their individual effort.

As the _incoming message_ light continued to blink, Jake turned to Ax. "Any way you can give that thing a busy signal for a few minutes, Ax-man?" Ax did as he was asked, and we all formed a loose circle, facing one another.

Jake sighed. "This sounds stupid after everything we've been through, but this is actually going to be a tough decision. Ax, Dron, I can't speak for you guys. If you want to be with your own people for this, I wouldn't hold it against you. The rest of us have to consider all these request carefully."

"Why?" That was Rachel. "Who cares where we're at? Whichever ship is going to be involved the most is the one we should be on," she said edgily.

"He's just thinking ahead," Marco told her. "_If_ we win this fight, and that's a big if, our group is going to be a huge part of why it was a victory. We don't want to show favoritism – give any particular group ammunition for future relations. You know – if we go with Silas, two years down the road when humans want a favor from Andalites, he could say 'Well you wouldn't even be here if it weren't for our people that sabotaged the Kelbrid.'"

As usual, Marco was a few steps ahead of us. I was still trying to wrap my head around the immense scale of warfare that was going to take place here. "He's right, Jake. How are we supposed to decide? How can we go with our own people if it causes trouble down the line?"

He smiled his old smile, the slow one that I loved. "Well, I should think it's pretty simple. In this particular effort, we can't consider ourselves humans. We're Animorphs. Nothing more, nothing less. The galactic good guys." He took a second to look each of us in our eyes in turn. "All we've ever wanted was to live in peace. To not be threatened, to be able to enjoy things like family and friends. That's what we've always fought for. Not individual races or planets, just an idea. I think we should keep it that way. We'll put it to a vote, of course, but I recommend we just stay here on this ship for the battle. Just us, the way we started out. What do you guys say?"

"Hell yeah," Rachel said. Rachel, front and center, as usual. "I died for you guys once, and I'll do it again in a heartbeat. Tobias is with me, too." He wrapped her in a tender hug, and they kissed so fiercely I felt the urge to blush and look away. They almost never did that in front of the rest of us. When they broke for air, Tobias nodded to Jake – he was with Rachel, no matter what she wanted to do.

"Yes," I said softly. "Of course I'm with you. We started this together – if this is the end, its how it should be." Tears welled in my eyes, and my heart felt so full that it might burst. I couldn't say any more without crying, so I left it at that. Jake halfway surprised me by kissing me with as much fervor as Tobias had kissed Rachel, and my tears finally spilled over as I kissed him back. "I love you, Jake," I said against his lips when he relaxed the kiss.

"I love you too, Cassie. I always have and I always will," he breathed back, and I wept openly.

Marco cleared his throat, and he tried to look amused, as if our exchanges hadn't affected him. He failed. I broke from Jake and gave Marco a tight hug, kissing his cheek tenderly. "I love you too, Marco," I told him. He blushed furiously, but couldn't help but to smile as he kissed me back on the top of my head. He didn't say it back, but he didn't have to. I knew. Rachel even managed to touch his cheek and give him a look that seemed to say more than words could. Jake fist-bumped him, and Tobias gave him a handshake.

He managed to look pleased and embarrassed at the same time. "You know, guys, for once I don't have anything smart to say. I love all of you, too, and I'm with you. Whether this is the end or the beginning, we'll face it together, as Animorphs."

(Right now, I am not an Andalite. I am an Animorph, and I've never been prouder to be anything in my life,) Ax said, dropping his war hero voice. He sounded exactly like the young Andalite we'd rescued from the bottom of the ocean so many years ago. Back when he was alone, afraid, and determined all at once. He must have been thinking the same thing. (I was stranded on an alien planet, surrounded by enemies, and you five took me in as one of you. You are every bit as much my family as any Andalite. I will stand with you until we get through this or until I fall. I love every one of you.) Tobias was the first to hug him, and Ax embraced all of us in turn. This wasn't an Andalite gesture, but he wanted to show all of us how much he cared. The fact that he did it at all made my heart swell once again.

We all kind of stood awkwardly around for a moment, and Dron surprised all of us out of our haze by saying, (I do not have the history with you that you share with each other, but you embody everything I aspire to be. Prince Jake, Prince Aximili, and my human friends – I will follow you wherever you go and defend you to the death. By my honor, I swear it,) he said, pressing his tail blade against his own throat.

Jake tried inconspicuously to wipe a tear. "It's settled, then. We stand together. Here, on this ship." He sighed and gave me a conspiratorial look. "Well, you're the diplomat. You and I should call around and start disappointing the various leaders as soon as possible." I smiled and kissed him again, briefly, and was pleased at how naturally he returned it. Yes, I'd stand with him and my friends. If I had ever been confused as to why we were fighting, it was crystal clear, now. Crystal.


	20. Chapter 19 Betrayal

A/N – Thank you again to everyone who took the time to review! Special thanks to The King of Soda (as always) and uncutetomboy (her motivation really brought back my love for this fic, and writing in general.) I was recently informed that monster-man-08 has done an artistic rendering of the Taruffs, and it's amazing. For those of you who want to see Amni'bel, Lok, and Hali firsthand, I've linked the picture in my profile. Anyway, enjoy!

Chapter 19

**Jake**

Since we knew the exact time and place the Kelbrid would arrive in system, we made simple adjustments to keep our view of the arrival uninterrupted. The planet we had chosen to ambush the Kelbrid at was beautiful, and more importantly uninhabited, but we needed it behind us. Lok, in his starfighter, hovered just a few feet above our ship – once he'd found out that's where Marco would be for the battle, no one was going to talk him out of his positioning. He was already upset that he hadn't been living up to his _La Kalo_ – the Taruff way of showing loyalty. According to him, he was supposed to have been with Marco this whole time. Marco had rolled his eyes and forgiven the big guy, but there was no talking him out of staying close to Marco now that they were in the same solar system.

(Ten seconds, Prince Jake,) Ax said. He was tense. He was nervous. We all were. (Nine, eight, seven…) When the countdown hit two, a huge portion of the starfield was blurred, then completely obscured.

We were expecting hundreds of Kelbrid craft, but for a short moment, I wasn't even sure what I was looking at. The huge mass in front of us looked like someone had taken all the buildings in New York City, turned them sideways, and thrust them into space in front of our arranged forces. I realized that the Kelbrid had packed their force together tightly, just as we'd hoped.

Just as I was wrapping my head around what I was seeing, the space below the Kelbrid shimmered, and in popped more ships. This group was just as large as the first, and already they dwarfed our fleet. Our unified fleet that had so awed us the day before now seemed ragtag and insignificant – and only half of the Kelbrid had arrived. As soon as I had this thought, the space _above_ the first battle group was filled with skyscraper-looking ships, too.

We had positioned our fleet far outside of weapons range, not knowing how long the Kelbrid would stay flat-footed at seeing our ships present and arranged in an assault formation. As far as they knew, they were dropping out of Z-space in an unoccupied system. Ax magnified the center battle group, and we could see Kelbrid fighters already beginning to pour out of the larger craft. They swarmed around their ships, apparently waiting for the order to attack. The Kelbrid were confused, and that was good – by all accounts of their species, though, they wouldn't dwell on the fact they'd been tricked for long.

Ax switched the magnified section of the viewport to our side of the battle line. Thirty-two fighters streaked toward the absolutely massive Kelbrid formation. Most were Andalite, but there were several human and Taruff fighters, too. I knew these were the 'detonator' ships – each one of them was transmitting a signal that, when they got close enough, would detonate the EMPs scattered throughout the Kelbrid formation. Theoretically, they'd get into range to detonate before the Kelbrid would be close enough to attack them.

Marco was the first to speak, breaking the trance that the size of the Kelbrid fleet had put us in. "Why are the detonator ships going already? They were supposed to wait until all the battle groups get here!"

Ax answered grimly. (Because the fourth group isn't coming. Or should I say, the first group. Harvis' group. The first collection of Kelbrid ships to arrive was actually the second.)

"What does that _mean_?" Rachel roared. "Did he find a way to sabotage them himself? Or did he completely screw us over?"

(Yes,) Ax said testily. (It is definitely one of those two things.)

Although it was a comfortable seventy-eight degrees on the ship, goosebumps puckered my arms. (You see? This is what we get for trusting a Yeerk!) Dron spat angrily. (If we had -)

"Enough, Dron!" I snapped. We _definitely_ didn't have time for dissent within the group.

"How bad is it?" Tobias said, mostly to himself. "Are we finished?"

(We will know soon enough,) Ax said. (The detonator ships should be in range in a few seconds.) We all watched with baited breath as the fighters got into the signal's range.

"Nothing's happening!" Rachel snarled. "That slimy Yeerk son of a -"

"Look! The top of the formation!" Tobias interrupted. Ax quickly magnified the section of warships Tobias had indicated, and what we saw made us cheer.

Blue lightning was shooting up the sides of the ships, starting in the middle of the formation and expanding outward. As the other two-thirds of the Kelbrid formation continued accelerating towards our waiting fleet, the top third fell behind. As thrusters and engines failed in random order, they started veering off course, several of them smashing into one another with huge explosions. We cheered again – it was working!

Right on the heels of the first group, the bottom third of the formation followed suit. Again, the blue lightning raced along the hulls, and shortly after, explosions of all different sizes as runaway ships crashed into each other. "No way!" Marco crowed. "The Yeerk actually came through!"

(No, he did not,) Ax corrected. I realized belatedly that he hadn't joined us in our celebration at the demise of two-thirds of the Kelbrid fleet. (All detonator ships are within signal range. The first Kelbrid battle group is still at ninety-two percent of its original strength. If an EMP were in place, it would have gone off by now.) He turned to me. (Prince Jake, we have been fools. Harvis destroyed enough of the Kelbrid fleet to even the odds between us and them. With our forces nearly equal in strength, it really won't even matter who wins the fight. The winner will be so crippled by the victory that they'll be basically useless.)

Deafening silence filled the bridge. "But that…that means Harvis will be out there with a full Kelbrid battle group. And after this battle, even if win, we won't be able to stand up to him," Cassie said, horrified.

"What do you want to bet he's on his way to the Yeerk homeworld now?" Marco said grimly. "Hundreds of ships. Millions of dangerous host bodies. No one to stop Yeerk conquest. He played us, guys. He played us good."

I didn't want to accept it. _Couldn't_ accept it. "How? How could one Yeerk outthink _millions_ of Kelbrid? How could every single Kelbrid be fooled by Harvis?" No one answered me. No one _had_ an answer. In front of us, the battle was beginning. A solid green wall of energy lanced forward from the Kelbrid formation. Several different types of energy weapons reached out toward the Kelbrid from our side.

(We'll win,) Dron said, looking up from the computer simulation he had been running. (If the Kelbrid fight like they always do, we'll win this battle. Without the Yeerk, the Kelbrid will use their own 'tactics.' But if this simulation program is accurate, we will lose about ninety-five percent of our fighting force.)

The fear, rage, and shame inside of me came to a head. "_Dammit!_" I snarled, punching the airlock door as hard as I could. I felt my hand break and didn't even care. "_Damn_ Harvis!"

(What is done is done, Prince Jake,) Ax said gently. (There is nothing we can do about it here and now. For the time being, all of our homes are safe. It is at a terrible price, but our fleet will buy us time. I think there is only one thing for us to do, now.)

"Take it to the Yeerks," Rachel said. "If Harvis' plan is to infest all of the Kelbrid under his command, then we know where that will have to happen. The Yeerk world. And we also know it'll take time. We take the fight to them, and we don't stop 'til we've hurt them as bad as they've hurt us."

"For once, I'm with Rachel," Marco said. His eyes were still on the battle, where ships on both sides were beginning to explode. "This is personal. I want to kill that Yeerk."

"Take a number," Tobias said. He sounded furious. "Let's call Amni'bel. Dron, what effect would it have on the fight if the Taruffs dropped out?"

Dron interacted with the computer. (Not much. Not to offend the Taruffs, but they really did not contribute in any significant way. Their weapons are still optimized for atmospheric performance. If every Taruff left the battle right now, it would only drop our fleet's effectiveness down one and a half percent.)

I reached over Cassie and keyed the communicator. "Lok? You read me?"

"Jake, I hear you," Lok replied. For the first time ever, the big guy sounded subdued. He too realized we'd been betrayed.

"I need you to call the princess. We don't have time to explain anything, to you or to her. Tell her she needs to trust me, and take all of your forces out of the fight. This isn't the time for the Taruffs to make their stand – we need you to fight somewhere else. Somewhere we can win. Can you convince her?" He didn't reply.

Marco leaned over my shoulder. "Lok, buddy, I know you Taruffs would never back down from a fight. You _have_ to convince the princess that we need you. We're going to attack our enemies where it will hurt them the most, and we ain't doing it with starfighters. It's going to be personal – blade to blade, hand to hand." Marco shot me a look that said, _If that doesn't get them to go along with us, nothing will._

"Ta-tu." Lok finally replied, the Taruff version of _affirmative_. We waited for several minutes as more ships exploded and both fleets thinned out. Finally, several larger ships we could see without magnification broke off and headed toward us. Ax zoomed in on them, and we could see that they were all Taruff in design.

"The princess has agreed. We will follow you. We will fight. And we will die, if we must," Lok's voice said over the intercom.

"Thanks, Lok," Marco replied. To me, he said, "Harvis has a big head start. If we're going to do this, we'd better do it right now, Jake."

I made the biggest decision of my life, and it wasn't even hard. I was ready for blood. "Send the coordinates to the Taruffs, Ax. We're going to the Yeerk homeworld. This ends _now_, one way or another."


	21. Chapter 20 Ambush

Chapter 20

**Marco**

There was no way I was going to be able to sleep.

We were in Z-space once again, this time heading for the Yeerks' home planet. The idea was a little frightening, but there was way more positive emotion about it than I thought there'd be. As 'enlightened' warriors, I guess we were supposed to be above the idea of revenge. I savored it, though. For years, those slugs had terrorized us on our own turf. They were the aggressors, we were the weak little humans mounting the bravest defense we could. We beat them, a real-life David verses Goliath. After so much fear and suffering, I'd thought I was finally going to be able to give it a rest. Then come the Kelbrid – but that was different. I actually had a choice to fight, and I have no doubt that I chose correctly. Maybe it was out of gratitude to the Andalites, maybe it was just to do what I could to keep my friends safe; whatever the reason, there was something right about leaving my home and defending the 'good guys.'

By now, the Andalite and Earth space forces had to be nearly decimated. The Kelbrid were effectively stopped – that was the mission. We didn't want it to happen like it did, but if that was the end of it, it would be worth it. We could rebuild, get on with our lives.

But no. The Yeerks in general, and Harvis in particular, couldn't leave us in peace. I had no doubt in my mind that as soon as they had the ability to do so, they would first target Earth, then the Andalites. I don't know what made me so sure Earth would be the first on their list, but I just had a feeling. A strong one. _Because they've never been thwarted before,_ I thought. _Sure, the Andalites hurt them, slowed them down at times. But before Earth, they'd never had a real defeat. Never had a species they wanted to take deny them. _I knew enough about Yeerks to know they weren't going to take that lying down, not if they had a second crack at it. _And we gave Harvis that chance. Wrapped it up in a pretty bow for him._

Despite all these racing thoughts, I guess I fell asleep. Exhaustion can do amazing things to a person. Next thing I knew, a loud but gentle noise was echoing around the room I was sleeping in. It sounded like a really annoying alarm clock, and for a moment I thought I was back home, on Earth. Several thought-speech shouts pulled me out of the half-dream, and I bolted off of my mat.

On the bridge, it was chaos. Jake was on the communicator, shouting orders. Ax and Dron were talking urgently, not bothering to keep their thought-speech private. I saw constellations through the viewport, and as I watched, they were eclipsed by a bug fighter screaming by, so close to us I could have sworn I heard the sound of metal on metal.

"What the hell's going on?" I shouted, more than three-quarters awake now. "I thought we were in Z-space!"

"We had to stop to plot around a small Z-space rift. I don't know what happened – there were bug fighters waiting for us when we came out of Z-space. I don't know what happened," Cassie kept saying. A Dracon blast rocked our ship, and the lights dimmed for a second.

(We're running on auxiliary power, Prince Aximili!) Dron yelled. (I'm going to try to get us into formation with the Taruffs!) The starfield rotated so rapidly it made me dizzy, and for a moment, my feet left the ground. (Artificial gravity is on the fritz! Hold on, everyone!)

When I looked up again, we were only a short distance away from a big, oval-shaped Taruff ship I recognized as Amni'bel's Royal-class cruiser. The cannons on her ship, seemingly pointed straight at us, began doing their weird, bubble-in-sunlight effect. I ducked reflexively, like _that _would do any good. Three of the energy spheres screamed past our hull. For a moment, I'd thought they'd hit us – the ship rocked twice, and the artificial gravity and lights cut out again, longer this time.

(Two bug fighters off our tail! Cassie, check the scanners. Where are the rest?) Ax demanded.

"I don't know! I'm not seeing any more," she said anxiously. Ax pulled up a sensor grid of his own, and after rapidly scanning it, settled back on his haunches.

(I think that was all of them, the whole ambush,) he said. (How did they _know?_ How is Harvis reading us so easily?)

"I don't know, Ax-man, but I think this makes it pretty clear that our element of surprise is gone," Tobias said. That was one thing we were counting on – the Yeerks wouldn't be expecting us to jet straight for their planet. This ambush made it obvious that they'd already anticipated our move.

While the Andalites tried to get all of the ship's functions back to normal and Rachel complained about the slow charge time of the lasers on the ship, I gestured to Jake to let me use the communicator. I keyed it for a broad-band transmission. "Hey Lok, you still out there?"

"Ta-tu," he replied almost instantly, and I let go the breath I didn't realize I'd been holding. "Three honorable kills for me."

"Nice work, man. I'd give anything to have a fighter here, to be out there with you," I said truthfully. There was nothing worse than being shot at without a way to defend yourself.

Lok grunted. "Dock with the princess' ship. Your Mako fighter is on board."

I let that rattle around my brain twice, and I still didn't comprehend. "What are you talking about? I watched that thing crash and burn on the Trunsk home world!"

He grunted again, longer and more deeply – a Taruff laugh. "Not the same fighter. Same design. Our engineers had the schematics from when they modified our own fighters. The princess had an exact replica built in your honor. It was supposed to be placed in the Royal Courtyard as a monument to your bravery, but when she knew we would be fighting together again, she brought it."

"Nice! I'll be right over!" Ax started toward Amni'bel's ship without me having to ask, but before I could say more, Rachel took the microphone from me.

"Lok! It's Rachel. _Please_ tell me you brought me one, too. I am so _sick_ of being a sitting duck."

"I am sorry, sun-hair. There is only one." The big guy sounded upset. "You know that I would be honored to fly with you."

Rachel looked disappointed, but she let him off the hook. "That's all right, Lok. Don't feel bad. Someday soon, we'll fly together again."

I gave her a sideways look. "How come you're only nice to Lok?"

"Because he's _so_ much cuter than you," she shot back, mock-sweetly.

I was about to get her back with a comment about blue babies with blond hair, but Ax cut me off. (Prince Jake, the battle has knocked out our Z-space drive. I do not think it is repairable, even if we had the proper equipment. Which we do not.)

"That's okay. I'm sure Amni'bel has room on her ship for us. Personally, I'm tired of this thing, anyway," Jake said. Nobody argued with him – I knew I, for one, was sick of sleeping on the floor.

Tobias said something quietly to Jake. I didn't catch much of it, but I distinctly heard the word 'Kandrona.' I heard Jake's reply. "We'll talk about it once we get aboard Amni'bel's ship. We have to regroup anyway; not that we had much of a plan to begin with, but this changes everything." He said something else, but his voice faded as I walked toward my 'room.' I was anxious to gather my few personal belongings and get _off_ this ship. The poo-bot scurried between my feet, almost tripping me, and I cursed. _The sooner, the better_ I thought to myself.


	22. Chapter 21 The Yeerk Home World

Chapter 21

**Harvis 1030**

I gazed down at my home world from orbit with a certain measure of pride. Against all odds, I was really here again. I had been in command of one of the small task forces that had escaped the defeat at Earth, holding the rank of Sub-visser twelve at the time. There were no more ranks. There was no more hierarchy. The Council of Thirteen had not been heard from since the Andalite blockade of my home world began – it was widely assumed that they had made it off-world shortly beforehand.

Most of my brothers had despaired after our defeat at the hands of the humans. We had been well on our way to galactic domination. Most Yeerks had fallen into the assumption we were invincible. As I watched as Visser three was repeatedly thwarted by the humans (at the time, they were suspected to be Andalite bandits,) I began to question that superiority that had been instilled in me. I began to see the superiority complex as a weakness, and suspected privately that even if we were able to take Earth, it would cost us too dearly. I suggested to my superiors the idea of an exit strategy – there was nothing to keep us from moving on, finding another species to infest. We were not too heavily invested in the planet to start over somewhere else, at that point. But I was told to hold my tongue, or I would be demoted.

That didn't stop me from making my own contingencies for defeat. It became more and more apparent to me, as the war on Earth went on, that we would lose. The Council's answer to the mounting problems was to heap more power on Visser three. He was promoted, given more direct control. That had been the straw that broke the back of my people. I had known that the humans were too warlike to lie down, having a human host myself. While most of my brothers with a human host crushed their host's will with glee, I listened to mine. I understood. I knew that if it came down to it, the humans would kill their own in order to kill us.

So when open war broke out, I waited for my opportunity. And when it came, I took my pitifully small group of followers and escaped. I didn't have a place to go. I knew I would be homeless as soon as the Andalites became involved. So, I just got away. I waited, content to bide my time and wait for the opportunity to rebuild.

It didn't take long. I watched as the Andalite blockade of my home world was first stretched thin, then completely abandoned. I was _very_ interested in what could have caused the Andalites to give up on it so soon after its inception. I knew they were confident in the fact that we were once again powerless, with no ships or hosts to cause trouble. They also were aware of groups of Yeerks, such as myself, who had escaped Earth intact. So I knew, logically, there must have been a greater threat to them than us.

I began searching for the answer, and ran into it almost accidentally. The Kelbrid cruiser I encountered had been on a mission of exploration, trying to find a suitable planet to leap-frog their conquest outward from their territory. Through sheer brilliance, I was able to talk them into a face-to-face meeting with me. The Kelbrid, for some unfathomable reason, had sent their captain to the meeting. When he left that meeting, I was in control of him. From that point, it was fairly easy to infest the rest of the engineering staff. I put our portable Kandrona aboard the Kelbrid cruiser and positioned my own people throughout the ship in such a way that gave us complete control, while physically controlling only a small percentage of the Kelbrid aboard.

Over the next few months, I slowly guided my Kelbrid puppet, and myself, through the ranks. In short order, I was a general, in charge of an entire battle fleet. After seeing the reports of skirmish after skirmish with the Andalites, I began to devise my master plan. It was a three-pronged operation. Extremely ambitious, but entirely workable. First and foremost, I had to find a way to destroy the human and Andalite space forces. That had been easier than expected – as soon as I began to threaten the Andalite world, every human and Andalite ship available dropped what they were doing and rushed to defend. At that point, it was just a matter of throwing enough of the Kelbrid under my command at them. Not a single one of the Kelbrid I had sacrificed had been a controller – not one single Yeerk had died in the complete destruction of both sides.

Now that I had effectively neutralized any force that might be able to stand against me militarily, I was starting the second phase of my operation. The Kelbrid battle group under my control orbited my home world, now. The true Kelbrid under my command thought we were on a mission to strip mine my planet for resources.

They would not understand that _their bodies_ were what was being strip mined until it was too late.

Even now, as I watched, a transport with five hundred Kelbrid warriors was ferried down to the surface of my world. They were heading to the Yorn Krak pool. When that transport returned the next day, it would be full of loyal Kelbrid controllers. As the number of controllers under my command increased, I would be able to speed up the process of infestation exponentially. I estimated that in no more than half a standard galactic year, the entire Kelbrid battle group would be a completely Yeerk battle group.

And the best part – every single Yeerk under my command would directly owe their new life to me. I will have given each of them a dangerous host body with an easily-crushed mind. They would once again be mobile, both in host and in interstellar transportation. They would _all_ be loyal to me.

I often thought of what title, if any, I would give myself when the second phase of my plan was complete. Visser one? No, that name would forever be associated with failure. Emperor? That was better, but I didn't want to seem pompous. I certainly would not lead by fear, as the former Visser one had. The minority of my people that wanted to explore the possibility of peace and symbiosis were a direct result of Visser one's leadership style. Living in fear for your life every day caused you to resort to increasingly radical ideas.

I knew this firsthand.

The first thing I would do for my new empire would be a favor to my people. They would love me before I gave them their gift – afterward, they would be fanatical for me. The third prong of my plan was not for me – it was for my people.

We would return to Earth and sterilize it.

Humans had proven themselves to be far too much trouble. Their bodies were inferior to most races. Their wills were too strong to easily crush. Despite their weak bodies, they were vicious in battle. They would fight to the last life to defend their freedom. No, better to eliminate the species, thereby eliminating the threat.

I continued to gaze down at my planet. I could see the larger pools from orbit. Why hadn't the Andalites destroyed us when they'd had the chance? I tried to understand, and couldn't. We had proven time and again that we would do it to them, given the opportunity. We had been the reason they couldn't have peace in the galaxy. One day of sustained shredder fire from their blockade, and no more threat. _They are a flawed species. Weak. Unable to destroy a race to save their own. This evolution, progression, is the natural order of things. We Yeerks were always going to win this war, because we are the only ones capable of winning it. Of doing what has to be done,_ I thought. A stab of vehement agreement bubbled up alongside my own mind – my Kelbrid prisoner was agreeing with me. He understood. He hated me and would kill me given the chance, but he understood.

It was nice to be understood.

_Do you also understand why the humans have to be dealt with? _ I asked my prisoner. _Do you understand why the five of them that are human _must _be destroyed? And their pet Andalite, the one who is not truly an Andalite anymore at all? Humans are as much of a disease as they see us Yeerks to be. Their ideas have already infected the one Andalite – given enough time, they would infect all Andalites. And _that_ would enable the Andalites to win this war that they are not capable of winning as themselves. Because humans and Yeerks are more alike than either species would care to admit._

If the humans had been the ones to form the blockade of my home world instead of the Andalites, my world would be a smoking crater right now. The humans knew the threat we presented, and they also knew how to deal with such a threat.

My only desire was to destroy that knowledge before it could spread. First the Animorphs, then all humans, would die. Only then could Yeerk conquest be possible. _You understand this concept, don't you?_ I asked my host. _Don't you?_

He did not answer me, but I could feel that he did.


	23. Chapter 22 Down Time

Chapter 22

**Rachel**

We had just gotten finished with a long discussion about what to do next. We really hadn't decided on anything, and I was feeling cranky. I knew, logically, we couldn't just take the small Taruff fleet straight at the Yeerks/Kelbrid, guns blazing. We'd be easily swatted – the Taruffs hadn't even been space-flight capable for as long as we humans had. Most of the ships we had with us weren't even armed – they were just carriers for the thousands of Taruff warriors who had come along. I grinned at the memory of Amni'bel explaining how she had gathered such a large force of fighters in such a short time.

"After the Trunsk were defeated, the Tribal Alliance was formed. We decided that galactic threats like the Trunsk and the Yeerks were a good reason to unite our planet." I had asked how they had gotten that done so quickly. "As tribes, we were in healthy competition with each other, and we each had our own cultures to preserve. But we haven't had an inter-tribal war in hundreds of years. The only reason we hadn't formed a planetary government before we met you was the lack of need."

"So, you realize there are bad guys out there, and you form a single world government? Just like that?" Marco asked skeptically. "No one objected?"

Amni'bel's eyes had flashed orange at that. "A Taruff who objects to what is best for his or her people is…dealt with. Not many spoke out against a Tribal Alliance. Those who did will not speak out against our well-being ever again."

"That's pretty rough," I'd said. Amni'bel raised her veil across the lower half of her face, and I smiled at her to let her know I wasn't criticizing. "Efficient, though. Wish we did things like that on Earth." The veil went down.

She continued. "When I returned home with the news of the Kelbrid threat, every warrior who was able to make the journey to the capitol did so. We simply could not convert enough ships for space flight to accommodate them all. For every warrior we have with us right now, there are five or six still on Xylen, training for the day we will be able to bring them into the fight."

"I wish they could be here," Jake had said wistfully. "We need everything we have to throw at the Yeerks." That started another round of point-and-counterpoint about how we could go about our current mission. Nothing was decided; everyone left the meeting unhappy. It wasn't that we weren't finding the solution – there _was_ no solution. Not with what we had to work with. We couldn't win a straight-up fight. And we couldn't see a way to win guerilla-style, either.

So now, I was lounging around in Lok's room with Lok, Tobias, and Marco. As the most decorated warrior on board, he had the biggest quarters. It had been packed with bunks to accommodate the maximum amount of warriors, but until it was time for the night cycle, Lok had it to his self. He'd insisted that Marco and I spend our down time with him. Tobias had been slightly amused, and had asked Lok if he could be included.

Lok had acted shocked, then he realized we still weren't familiar with all of the Taruff customs. "On Xylen, a mated pair is seen as one being. If you invite one, you invite both." Tobias blushed a little at the 'mated pair' comment, but had nodded his understanding. That's how I came to be lounging on one bunk with him, with Marco's legs dangling annoyingly from the bunk over ours, in Lok's quarters. Lok himself was seated in the triple-jointed indian-style we were still getting used to. Tobias and I were paying more attention to each other than the portable DVD player/TV combo Marco had somehow managed to keep with him, but Lok kept interrupting the movie with questions and comments.

"These red-clad humans are fierce! They are greatly outnumbered, at least three to one, but they do not yield. _And_ they fight with blades almost as well as a Taruff! I _like_ these humans!" Lok growled.

"They were outnumbered more than that, big guy," Marco said. "The flim's called _300_, because that's how many of them there were. They held off a million of their enemy."

Lok scoffed. "That's not real. That's impossible."

Tobias chimed in. "No, it's not. Those three hundred Spartan men held off a Persian army of over one million. They used their skill and tactics to make the Persians pay so dearly, they lost the will to fight."

"What happened to these Spartans?" Lok asked eagerly.

"Watch and see," Marco said, trying to shut the both of them up, even though he'd seen the movie at least a hundred times.

"I want to know what happened now!" Lok said petulantly. I stifled a laugh – Lok wasn't used to being told 'no.'

"Dead to the last man," Tobias said. "But, like I said, they made the Persians lose so many lives that they lost their taste for the battle. The Persian army was devastated by deserters and defeated later on."

Lok grunted in what sounded like _extreme_ approval. "And you humans?" he asked Tobias. "You, Marco, Jake, Cassie, and Rachel? You are from the Spartan tribe?"

Marco, Tobias, and I looked at each other. I could feel an identical smile forming on my face to the ones on the boys'. Lok had just given us the greatest compliment of our lives, and he hadn't even meant to. Marco, with a look of extreme pleasure, said, "Nah. They're a very old culture. They've been gone for centuries."

"That cannot be true. You five are very much like these warriors. You must be descendants, at least," he said with certainty. He turned back to the little TV to continue watching, and me and Tobias exchanged another look. My bad mood was completely wiped away.

"_Rachel_ is," Marco teased. "She's a certified Spartan warrior princess."

"Yes," Lok agreed distractedly. I reached up and pushed Marco's legs out of the way, but secretly, I was flattered.

We all watched the movie in silence for a while. When someone finally spoke, it was Tobias. "Maybe that's it."

"Maybe that's what?" I asked.

"Maybe we don't have to defeat every Yeerk. Maybe we just need to come up with a way to make them realize it's not worth it to mess with us and the Taruffs."

"Nice idea, but the Yeerks ain't Persians," I said. "I don't think hurting them will make them back down. If anything, I think the more damage we do, the more they're going to want to take us out."

Marco hit pause. "What if it wasn't _us_ doing the damage? I mean, we assume that Harvis is infesting the Kelbrid fleet like the original Visser One wanted to infest Earth – do it quietly, rely on secrecy, until they can finish their conquest without blood. They _need_ those bodies. They _need_ those ships. What if we could find a way to alert the Kelbrid to what's really going on?"

"We have no way of knowing which Kelbrid are already controllers," Tobias pointed out. "If we let the wrong Kelbrid know, we'd just be giving Harvis a heads-up to what we're planning."

"Infiltrate and observe, dude," Marco replied. "We don't have a morphing limit anymore – we can just keep watch until we find a weak point in Harvis' strategy. Then we make our move."

"Harvis will be expecting that," I warned. "He's obviously hip to us and our strategies we've used before."

"So he'll be expecting one of two things," Marco said, excitement starting to creep into his voice. "An all-out assault, with us and Taruffs hitting the planet as hard as we can with what we have. Or infiltration, trying to destroy his plan from the inside out. But will he be expecting both?" he wondered. "I doubt it. I definitely doubt it."

"I don't like him, but he might have a point," Tobias said teasingly, then he got serious. "But can we sacrifice Taruff lives for the sake of a diversion? I definitely don't like that idea."

"I like it!" Lok interrupted. "We get to fight, you get to turn the Kelbrid to our side. Our warriors have flown halfway across the galaxy. I speak for them – we _want_ to fight. The Spartan-humans are not the only warriors who can beat great odds. And they are not the only ones who wish for a noble death."

I shrugged. "It's better than anything I heard earlier. Wanna take it to Jake?" I asked.

"After the movie," Marco said, and hit play. Lok settled back in to watch, possibly more interested than he was before. Tobias shot me another look – _Typical_, it said. I felt better. I always felt better when we had a plan, but it was more than that. Like I'd told Lok right before we'd left the Kelbrid ship for good, I was tired of being a sitting duck. I was ready to play some offense.


	24. Chapter 23 Infiltration

A/N – Thanks for the reviews, again! I suppose it's time to address some specific concerns. I am not really worrying about perfect continuity for this fic, for several reasons. Most importantly, I want to keep it somewhat current in order to keep it relevant. Space travel does funny things to time... I would beg you not to let this ruin your experience. Also, Amni'bel said that the dissenters were 'dealt with,' not murdered. I left that open ended on purpose. I know these chapters might be considered slow, or 'filler,' but what can I say? I'm not K.A., my writing style is a bit different. Anyway, keep commenting!

Chapter 23

**Cassie**

We could see the Yeerk planet between two Kelbrid battleships that hung in orbit. Me, Jake, and Ax were already in Kelbrid morph. The three of us were in the Taruff's smallest transport – in Kelbrid morph, we barely fit. Ax and Dron had spent a few days modifying the tiny freighter for stealth – the plan was to sneak down to the planet's surface and join the hundreds of Kelbrid already on-planet for the infestation process. We were going in as spies – Jake said we wouldn't fight unless we were somehow compromised, but he and Ax believed we'd be lost in the hustle and bustle. It was just the three of us, because we were the only ones with both unlimited morph time and universal language translators. We didn't know if they'd be speaking Galard, Kelbrid, or some other language on the Yeerk world, but either way, we needed to speak it. We needed to see what the Yeerks were doing, how they were doing it, and how fast they were taking over Kelbrid bodies. Knowing these things would give us an edge when we finally attacked – we hoped.

Ax saw the opening he'd been waiting for. (There! Kelbrid cargo vessel leaving the rightmost battleship's docking bay. I'm taking us in,) he said, punching up the burn on our ship. The theory was that even if the Yeerks did have some sort of sensor in place that could spot Andalite cloaking technology, tailing the Kelbrid vessel closely would hide us from it.

As Ax brought us in snugly behind the lumbering Kelbrid freighter, Jake sent me a private thought-speech message. (You cool, Cassie?) Even in thought-speech, I could make out concern in his 'voice.'

(I'm good. We have no reason to believe this won't work,) I tried to inject confidence into my statement.

(Right,) he said. He switched to include Ax in his next message. (All right. We get in, do a little note-taking, and get out. Ax, you have any idea where we should land?)

(Yes, Prince Jake. I am assuming this Kelbrid transport will land relatively close to a Yeerk pool. The cloak on this ship will remain active even upon landing, so I plan to set down relatively close to the transport. We can then mingle with the departing Kelbrid and make our observations undetected.) He sounded almost bored, and that made me feel better about the mission.

The atmosphere we entered was strange – through Kelbrid eyes, it looked a yellowish-green. It was turbulent – I could feel that in the way our ship moved through it, but I could also _see_ electricity in the air. It was a strange concept, but the Kelbrid eyes were adept at seeing the actual electrical currents in the sky. It almost made what I was looking at appear as if through light static, like a fainty interrupted TV station.

(We will touch down in thirty seconds,) Ax informed us. I leaned my head over Jake to see the Kelbrid freighter in front of us touch down heavily on Yeerk soil, and felt a mental shiver. _Here we are. The Yeerk home world._ I didn't know if I was scared, excited, or some combination of the two. As we landed, I felt distinctly like we were taking the fight to the Yeerks instead of just being on the defensive. It was a very different feeling.

Ax opened the cargo door, and we quickly scuttled out, wanting to leave the ship behind and hidden as soon as we could. I could see behind me without turning my head more than a few degrees, and the second we were off of it, it disappeared. We were able to easily creep among the small Kelbrid army now marching toward the Yeerk pool directly in front of us. No one called out an alarm. None of them so much as acknowledged our presence. (So far, so good,) Jake said.

Around the Yeerk pool, I could see several hastily-constructed piers. There were already Kelbrid stationed at them as we filed up. One of these Kelbrid stepped forward and began waving his forearm claws and buzzing loudly. I understood the insectile language perfectly as he spoke.

"Brother Kelbrid! We are here to enhance our fighting abilities! You will come forward and put your head into the liquid until you are stronger! Then you will make way for the next brother!" A slight, high-pitched buzz that meant acknowledgement rose up from the gathered Kelbrid, and Jake, Ax and I joined it as not to be singled out. The foremost of the Kelbrid immediately began mounting the piers to receive their Yeerks.

(No questions? That order doesn't even make sense!) I said as the first of the Kelbrid dipped their heads into the pool. (They're just going to blindly dunk their heads in a weird liquid on an unknown planet for no reason other than someone told them to?)

(Now you see what I've been up against,) Ax said grimly. (Kelbrid space forces were told to attack any vessel they encountered. Whether it was a single Skrit-na trader or an Andalite war fleet, they did so. No regard for safety. No common sense was involved.)

(Either way, it's worse than we thought,) Jake said. (The Yeerks aren't infesting them by force. They don't have to. I wonder whether the Kelbrid take orders from the Yeerk just as blindly after they're infested.)

(If so, they're a Yeerk's dream host,) I bemoaned. I felt horrible for them. How terrible must it be to not even be capable of independent though?

(We have to stop this,) Jake said. (And I mean as soon as possible. We can assume this is going on all over the planet. There are at least a couple hundred Kelbrid here, and at this rate, they'll all be controllers in an hour or so. Every second we wait, the Yeerks grow stronger.)

(The pools themselves don't have any defenses,) Ax pointed out. (Not like their off-world pools – they do not expect to be attacked here.)

(Yeah, but how many pools do they have? How many Kelbrid-controllers have already been made? And how do you attack a puddle? The Taruffs can't come in, swinging their swords at the pools themselves,) I said. I was quickly losing hope.

(Heat,) Ax said. (We need a way to heat these pools up. The Taruffs' weapons are effective in atmosphere, that much I know. I am a bit embarrassed, but I never actually took the time to find out what energetic principle their weapons actually use.)

(Well, I guess that's the next step,) Jake said. (We need to go back, rejoin the Taruffs, and find out if their weapons can do any damage to these Yeerk pools. Although I don't know how they're going to break through the Kelbrid fleet,) he admitted. (Let's ease out of this party and get back to the ship.)

We did as he said. When we got about twenty feet away from the group, one of the bored-looking Kelbrid-controllers manning the pier looked our way. "You three! What are you doing?" he 'shouted.' Every Kelbrid head swiveled to look our way. We froze.

(Prince Jake, what do we do?) Ax hissed. (Should we run? Or should we bluff?)

I couldn't see where our ship was, but I was sure it was a lot farther away from us than the Kelbrid were. Jake must have been thinking the same thing. (We bluff,) he said, trying not to sound worried. He didn't succeed.


	25. Chapter 24 Escape

A/N - *IMPORTANT* If you are one of the few who actually review this fic, disregard this. This message is for the rest of you. I was gonna let it slide, but I can't. When I took four days off between the last two chapters, I actually got two private messages from "readers" who basically wanted to tell me I wasn't working fast enough for them. Neither one of these people had bothered to review a single chapter, but somehow felt they were entitled to demand an update. This, along with the fact that only roughly 15% of signed-in readers are reviewing, has really pissed me off. I'm not going to threaten to quit this story or anything, but once again, I urge you to _please_ do the right thing and leave a short review. Be decent.

Chapter 24

**Jake**

(Speak Galard!) Ax hissed quickly in thought-speech. (If you were a controller, you'd be speaking Galard!)

I had just opened my mandibles to screech back in Kelbrid to the controller who'd confronted us, but Ax's message got through in time. "Don't draw attention, fool! We're here at Harvis' command for quality control of the infestation," I said as cockily as I could manage. Ax was right – speaking in the universal trading language made it seem like I was trying to keep the conversation private from the gathered Kelbrid who were not yet infested. The Kelbrid-controller's body language was confused, and I pushed my advantage before he could reply. "You need to speed this along. We need as many Kelbrid under control as possible before the retaliation from the Andalites comes!"

The Kelbrid-controller still exuded confusion, but he did his best not to be thrown off. "What is your name?" he asked, replying in Galard.

"Finish your job," I said coldly. "Then make your report directly to Harvis 1030. You can rest assured he will be waiting on it – I'll make sure of that." I sent a private message to Ax and Cassie, and we swaggered away from the largely disinterested Kelbrid mass.

Cassie, who was in the back of the line, said, (Jake, I don't know if he bought it. Him and two other Kelbrid are catching up to us. I think he's going to confront us away from the pool to avoid a scene.)

(Good,) I said grimly. (If it's going to come down to a fight, at least it will be a fair one. And they'll be too far away to call in quick reinforcements.)

Sure enough, the Yeerk I'd tried to scare into leaving us alone was right behind us before we could reach the ship. "You, there! I asked for your name. You _know_ we're on the lookout for infiltration, and -" He never got to finish his statement. I turned and leapt over Ax and Cassie, swinging my hooked, bladed arm at his head. If he'd been human or Hork-bajir, the strike would have decapitated him. His hard carapace deflected most of my blow, but his head cracked, and a pus-like substance spurted from the wound. He staggered back, stunned, but the other two Kelbrid-controllers were on me in a flash! I let out an involuntary cry of pain as one of them latched onto my right arm with his powerful jaws, and the other scythed one of my left legs clean off.

Chaos! I tried to skitter away to regroup, but I was weighed down by a full-grown Kelbrid latched onto my arm. He clawed at my compound eyes, succeeding in blinding one of them. Suddenly, I was free. Through my good eye, I could see the head still latched onto me, but it was no longer attached to its body. I could vaguely see either Ax or Cassie locked in battle with the remaining Kelbrid, and as I watched, they double-teamed him and took him out. I finally shook the ghastly head, still gnawing blindly at my arm, off of me. We all turned to haul butt to the ship, but I kept falling down due to my missing leg. Thinking was also getting foggy – my Kelbrid morph was severly damaged. (I gotta demorph, guys!) I cried, and started the process immediately.

(Hurry!) Cassie replied. (Five or six more controllers are on the way!) I was about halfway through the morph when Ax scooped me up and ran with me. I guess the reinforcements were closer than I thought.

(Continue demorphing, Prince Jake. This isn't a fight we can win. I think we can make it to the ship.) As he said this, we ran flat-out into the invisible metal wall of the freighter. Ax got the hatch open through thought-speech, and as soon as we were aboard, closed it behind us. Fully human, I could hear loud bangs and scratches as the Kelbrid on our tail tried to pry into the invisible ship.

(Twenty seconds,) Ax said tersely. The whine of the ship steadily rose as he quickly got more and more systems on-line. (I would imagine getting out is going to be harder than getting in. They'll be looking for us. Everyone get ready for another fight.)

(Jake, are you okay?) Cassie asked. As she spoke, she was demorphing rapidly. As her mouth emerged, she answered my unspoken question. "I can't stand being in that morph any more. It's useless for anything but fighting, and we won't need it in space."

"I'm okay," I told her, turning my attention to Ax and the forward viewport. He was lifting us off the Yeerk soil and pointing us spaceward. I lost my balance as the angle of the deck went from level to more than forty-five degrees, and landed with a mostly-demorphed Cassie in a jumble against the rear bulkhead.

(Sorry, Cassie, Prince Jake,) Ax said distractedly. (We are still cloaked, which will make it harder for anyone to take a shot at us, but the burn trails we're leaving will allow them to locate us if they are close enough.) The view outside of the ship was rapidly darkening as we transitioned through the different layers of atmosphere. Ax magnified our view, and we could see three Kelbrid ships in orbit closing in on our exit point. (We might be fast enough to slip through the net they're trying to close on us,) he said, and the ship gave a shudder as he somehow coaxed even more speed out of the engines.

The Kelbrid cruisers trying to intercept us seemed to notice they weren't going to be able to block our escape, so they began pouring green laser-fire into our path. Ax flew the ship directly toward it, and Cassie hid her eyes. "Ax! Dodge, man!" I yelled as one blast came particularly close.

(I can't!) he cried helplessly. (If I slow down, they'll catch us! And I can't maneuver at this speed – we're ballistic!) I said a silent prayer as the ship bucked from a glancing blow. For a second or two, it seemed like I couldn't see anything _but_ green lasers through the front viewport.

Then, as suddenly as we came under fire, we were through. (Yaaah!) Ax yelled in pure exhilaration. (We made it! Prince Jake, that was _very_ close. I admit, I didn't think we were going to escape.) He locked us into Z-space and immediately began resuming his Andalite form.

When he was finished, I clapped him on his blue shoulder. "Well, we did make it, thanks to your mad piloting skills." I looked behind me, and Cassie was still on the floor, leaned up against the bulkhead. "Cass? We're clear. You okay?"

She shook her head. "I'm not. I'm overwhelmed," she said simply. I went to put an arm around her, and she gently but firmly pushed me away. "I can't deal with this anymore, Jake."

I knew what she was feeling. "Cassie, that was a rough fight. I know how you feel, but-"

"You _don't_ know how I feel!" she shouted. I took a step back, stunned. Cassie wasn't the yelling type. "Yippee, we survived another close call! What else is new? It's not even _about_ that!" She got to her feet looking angry, but she was starting to cry. "What now? We throw the Taruffs at the Kelbrid, and they kill each other? We're going to try and boil the Yeerks to death on their own planet? Even the good ones?" She saw me open my mouth to reply, and put a shaking finger in my face. "No, Jake, don't. I _know_ it's impossible to tell which Yeerks are peaceful and which ones aren't. I _know_ it's a small percentage of good-to-bad, anyway. That doesn't change the fact that this is just way too much murder and violence for me to deal with."

I was stunned. Cassie had always been the sensitive one, the one most likely to question our – my – methods, but I couldn't ever remember an explosion like this out of her. "Cassie, don't leave out the humans in all this. Don't forget that, if we do nothing, eventually the Yeerks, or the Kelbrid, or some combination of both are going to go to Earth and threaten our friends and our family. It's not about abstract murder; it's about _them_." I looked to Ax for back-up, but all four of his eyes were pointedly directed away from us. I was on my own. "Look, you just have to -"

"No!" she yelled. "I don't _have_ to do anything! And you know what? This was it for me. I'm not doing it anymore. I love you, Jake. I love Ax, and Rachel, and Marco and Tobias. But it's not enough anymore. That bond isn't strong enough to keep me killing anymore." She was crying even harder now, and I made one more attempt to comfort her, even though I was confused as how to actually deal with this. Once again, she shoved me away. "If you guys feel like you have to keep doing it, so be it. It's going to kill me to do it, but if you can't walk away from it, I'll have to walk away from _you._" She looked around the tiny ship for an escape, but of course, there was nowhere to go. She settled on sitting in the corner farthest away from me and Ax. "I _cannot_ be a part of this anymore. Taking part in the killing of enslaved species on strange planets, far away from _their_ parents and loved ones. If the Yeerks come to Earth, _when _they come, I'll fight. But I won't be a part of this…this…_tragedy _anymore!"

I looked at her distraught face, and my insides hurt. I wanted to go to her, but she didn't want me. I wanted to leave her in peace, but again, there was nowhere to go on the ship. I settled for sitting in the other corner and stared out into Z-space. My heart was breaking two different ways. I _loved_ Cassie, and she was very obviously at her breaking point. I wanted to give her what she wanted – just let her go home. I knew, deep down, there was nothing I could say this time. I wasn't even sure if I _wanted_ to talk her out of it, because I could certainly understand where she was coming from. I knew I'd have to let her go if it came down to it.

My heart was also breaking for the cause. Because, while I knew letting her leave the fight was something I would have to do, I knew that our force would become a lot weaker without her. And if we weren't strong enough to succeed, we were done. Finished. And if _we_ were done, so was the entire free universe. It was too much. My head spun with exhaustion, sadness, and uncertainty. _This is exactly why I never wanted to be the leader,_ I thought bitterly. _Maybe _I _should quit, too._ I knew I never would, but it made me feel fractionally better to think that thought. I took one last look at Cassie, saw her jaw still set in determination, and closed my eyes. I let the adrenaline dump my body had gone through take over, and felt sleep try to claim me. I gave up in the one small way I could, and fell into an exhausted slumber.


	26. Chapter 25 Hope

Chapter 25

**Rachel**

I decided it was time for me to step up.

Jake, Cassie, and Ax had returned back to Amni'bel's ship a few hours earlier. No one had answered my question of how it went – Cassie and Jake had just split up and gone to their separate quarters. I followed Ax, demanding an answer.

(Poorly,) he had simply said. (It went poorly. You weren't expecting good news, were you?) he asked, and once again, I wondered if he had been picking up sarcasm from Marco. (We ran into combat on the planet. Prince Jake and Cassie…well, you will have to ask them yourself.) Then he went and locked himself in his own quarters.

I didn't know what the hell was going on, but I knew we didn't have time to sit around and pout. I had banged on Jake's door until he answered, then I had demanded the whole story. He told me, and I wanted to rip out my hair.

"Are you _kidding_?" I asked when he told me what Cassie had said. We had grown apart a little over the years, but I still considered her my best friend. I went to leave, to go find out firsthand what was going on with her, but Jake stopped me by grabbing my arm.

"You need to leave her be, Rachel," he warned. "You didn't hear her. I know she was always at odds with herself for the things we had to do, but this time it was different. I don't want her here just because you talked her into staying. She has to want to be here, and she doesn't."

"This isn't the time for eggshell-walking, Jake!" I snapped. "You just said the Yeerks are making hundreds of Kelbrid-controllers per hour. Every hour you and Cassie hide in your rooms and feel sorry for yourselves is more dead Taruffs! And probably humans, too!"

He actually grabbed my shoulders and shook me. He knew I didn't like to be touched, but he did it anyway. I forced my fist to unclench as he said, "You are yelling things at me I already know." His teeth were gritted. "I know there's not a second to waste. I also don't know what the hell to do about it. So why don't _you_ figure it out? This is a test ten grades above me that I didn't study for. Any decision I make, including doing nothing, is going to get countless people killed. How am I supposed to live with that?"

"You're going to have to find a way," I said bluntly. "It's not all about you, Jake."

To my surprise, he actually laughed. "You're right. If I'm lucky enough to be alive when this is all over, maybe I _shouldn't_ care. But even if I didn't have qualms about sending people to die, the fact remains that I don't see a way to beat them. Me, Ax, and Cassie were nearly killed just trying to scout it out." He turned stoic. "Ax suggested boiling the major Yeerk pools, even though there's probably no way to do it. Why don't you go talk to him? That way, when millions of sentients die, it'll be on him."

I was tired of his defeated attitude. We didn't have time for it. "All right, I will," I told him. "At least he won't whine," I added, more harshly than I'd intended. Jake just nodded, as if he totally agreed. I wanted to take it back, but it was already said. I sighed and left.

When I arrived at Ax's room, I was mildly surprised to see Marco and Lok already with him. When I entered, Marco looked up. "Good," he said. "We're trying to put together a game plan. We could use your brutality." I studied his face – for once, there wasn't an ounce of joking present.

I struggled with a reply, then just shrugged. _Call a spade a spade, then,_ I thought. I sat down beside Lok and said, "What do we have so far?"

"Besides a headache?" Marco replied. Lok grabbed his huge head with both hands, like his brain was exploding, and I snorted a laugh, despite myself. Marco grinned. "We've got all of our enemies in one place," he said, getting serious. "And we know we'll have them there for at least a little while. I know Jake and Cassie are opposed to genocide. Not me. Kill the Yeerk before it gets into the host has always been our Plan A. Kill the controller is Plan B. We need a way to wipe out both, in this case. Everybody keeps forgetting that before the Yeerks were ever involved, the Kelbrid were trying to take out the Andalites because they were in their way."

I looked at Ax. "Jake said something about boiling Yeerk pools?"

Ax nodded. (Lok has confirmed that Taruff weapons emit more than enough heat to do just that. The problem is getting the Taruffs through the Kelbrid fleet in orbit to use those weapons on the pools.)

Marco shook his head. "That's going to be next to impossible. Ax was just saying something interesting when you walked in, though. Tell her, Ax."

(Remember the Kelbrid messenger ship we hijacked?) he asked. I rolled my eyes – how could I forget? (I discovered something interesting while I was studying it – it was equipped with a slave-drive.)

I didn't like the sound of that. I narrowed my eyes and said, "Slave-drive? That sounds ugly. What is it?"

He smiled with his eyes. (It's just a term we Andalites use. It's like an auto-pilot, but controlled from another ship.)

"Think remote-controlled car," Marco said. "One ship is the remote. The ship linked to the slave drive is the car. Ax thinks that it's likely that all Kelbrid ships are equipped with this slave drive."

Ax nodded again. (Yes. It would make sense that the Kelbrid would want to be able to seize control of any given ship if it were invaded. It is a long shot,) he said, using one of his favorite human expressions, (but, if several variables were able to be controlled, I believe that I – we – could seize control of the Kelbrid fleet with a minimal amount of people.)

I let this sink in for a minute. "You're saying if we can grab the remote, we would control all the Kelbrid ships in orbit? That would be game over, Ax. We win."

Marco was smirking and shaking his head like I said something stupid. "It's not that easy, Rachel. First, we have to find the ship that can control the others. It's not like they've got a sign on the outside of it saying, 'Take this ship! Control our war fleet!'"

Ax got a look on his largely-expressionless face that I knew fairly well. It meant he was about to chump somebody out – turned out it was Marco. (You give them too much credit. While a human or Andalite fleet would hide this 'control ship,' the Kelbrid wouldn't have even considered it. Brute force, directness. Their biggest, most powerful ship will most certainly be the control ship.)

I stared at him open-mouthed. "What are we waiting for?" I asked. "Let's go take control of their fleet and crash every last Kelbrid ship into the Yeerk planet. War over."

Before Ax could respond, Marco got up and started pacing, ticking points off his fingers as he went. Lok, too big to pace, contented himself with ticking his fingers along with Marco. "First, we'd have to get aboard the ship undetected. Second, we'd have to either fight or bluff our way to the bridge – and you know how big that ship is. Third, we wouldn't be dealing with gullible Kelbrid – this is Harvis' ship. You _know_ his ship was the first one to be filled up with loyal Kelbrid-controllers. Fourth, we would have to hold off a ship full of ticked-off Kelbrid-controllers to give Ax enough time to figure out this slave drive system, and use it to crash the rest of the ships. Fifth – and this is the big one – we'd have to pray that the first thing Harvis did was _not_ disable this system to prevent exactly this from happening."

"I think it's a safe bet Harvis didn't disable this slave drive," Jake said from the doorway, making Marco and I jump. Of course, Ax had already seen him arrive. And Lok wasn't the jumpy sort. Jake smiled sheepishly at me. "You were right – there's no time to feel sorry for myself. Anyway, think about it – Harvis giving up direct control of the rest of his fleet? I'm starting to think of this particular Yeerk as a lot like Visser One – smart, but egotistical. And a control freak. In the back of his mind, he's going to be worried about a mutiny, or some of his group breaking off. What better insurance policy than a system that would let him shut down potential usurpers at the press of a button?"

(Prince Jake is correct. It is in the nature of ambitious Yeerks to be paranoid of attack from the inside. He will not relinquish control of this system,) Ax agreed.

"Right. I have a plan," Jake said slowly. "But it's probably the most dangerous thing I've ever suggested. And there's only about a million things that can go wrong. But if we can pull it off, it'll mean the end of both the Kelbrid _and _the Yeerk threat with minimal loss of life – for both sides."

I didn't like where this was going. Jake usually didn't beat around the bush, he just spit it out. So that's what I told him to do – spit it out. He steeled himself and said, "We need to contact the Yeerk Peace Faction. We have to work with Yeerks to beat them."


	27. Chapter 26 Battleship Assault

Chapter 26

**Jake**

In the end, we decided to go for broke.

I had tried to find a way around the slaughter that was about to happen. I really did. It wasn't just for Cassie's sake, either. If there were any way to resolve this even semi-peacefully, I would have gladly taken it. I had spent a whole day trying to figure out how to get in touch with the Yeerk Peace Movement. It wasn't possible, not for me.

When I finally accepted the fact that our only course of action was a direct assault on Harvis' command ship, I tried to give Cassie an out. She had been present at every council of war we'd held on Amni'bel's ship, but she hadn't spoken a word. I'd assumed that, despite what she'd said, she would fight with us anyway. I was right. She wasn't going to like it, she wasn't going to be happy about it, but after everything we'd been through, she couldn't stand by and watch. It made me feel terrible. At my suggestion that she stay behind on Amni'bel's ship, she'd just shot me a dirty look.

Now we were on one of the Taruffs' "Ram Ships." I'd learned it was actually a concept that my old friend Prince Krish had introduced. Basically, the craft was a huge drill bit. It was designed to hit an enemy ship, drill in, and then open, disgorging the warriors within. They were heavily armored, which was good, because they were slow. They'd take a lot of punishment before they got to their target.

There were no windows on our Ram, but I could see the scene around us with clarity. Twenty Rams, each one containing roughly five hundred Taruffs, were lumbering slowly toward Harvis' command ship. We'd estimated that probably half of them would make it to their destination. The other half would be either disabled or destroyed before they could reach their mark. The Taruff starfighters would run interference, but we weren't naïve enough to think they could hold out for long.

When the Ram started to bounce, like an airplane in turbulence, I knew that we had come into range of Harvis' guns. It wouldn't be long, now. I looked around. Behind me, five hundred Taruffs stood ready to do battle. They were quiet, but that was typical. For Taruffs, the time right before a battle was a spiritual time. They spent it asking their gods for strength, and if necessary, to help them die with honor.

To my left and right, looking almost humorously out of place, were an assortment of Earth animals. Marco was in gorilla morph beside Cassie, who had gone wolf. Rachel, as usual, was in her grizzly morph. Tobias was in his bull morph, and past him was Ax, who didn't need to morph to be deadly.

(Okay guys,) I said as our Ram bucked extra hard. (If we're in laser range, that means we've got about sixty seconds 'til we're aboard Harvis' ship. Any last concerns?)

(Yeah. Is it too late to tell the bus driver to go to McDonald's, instead?) Marco asked. Everybody laughed in thought-speak.

There was a massive collision that threw us all to the ground, even Ax. A horrible, high-pitched shrieking sound came from just beyond the airlock doors in front of us. (This is it!) I said. (Remember, take out whoever gets in your way, but we have to keep moving. This thing was supposed to land pretty close to the bridge, but we won't know until we're aboard. Ax, you're sure you can take us in the right direction?)

Ax responded by holding up a small, hand-held computer. (Yes, Prince Jake. This will lead us directly to the bridge.)

The airlock doors parted with a hiss, and past all the shredded metal, I could see a Kelbrid passageway. (Let's do it!) Rachel yelled, barreling into the ship. The full-throated roar of five hundred Taruffs almost threw me to the ground again.

(Stick together!) I yelled as I followed Rachel into the ship. Ax charged past me, drawing level with Rachel.

(This way!) Ax motioned us forward. I had just enough time to think, _'Where are all the Kelbrid?'_ before one dropped out of a hidden nook in the ceiling, almost right on top of me. I dodged his slash nimbly, and climbed his back, giving him a death-bite on the neck.

(Two more behind you!) Marco yelled. I had just enough time to see him land a punch that would have knocked over a dumpster before I was dodging and slashing another Kelbrid. Three more Kelbrid stalked toward me.

Pandemonium! The Taruffs were streaming out of the Ram, and their blades started flashing as they encountered the Kelbrid. (Everybody okay?) I asked. When they all answered in the affirmative, I said, (Okay. Ax, lead on. Are we close?)

(Yes, Prince Jake,) he replied as he studied his computer with his main eyes. He began to run forward, away from the escalating Kelbrid/Taruff fight, and we followed. His tail occasionally slashed at a random Kelbrid who tried to stand in our way – if Ax didn't get them, Tobias' rampaging bull morph made them rethink getting in our way. Twice we had to stop and fight, because of the sheer number of Kelbrid that filled the halls. We were all still alive, still with it, but nobody was without injuries.

(Here!) Ax yelled as we neared another set of blast doors. (The bridge should be just beyond these doors.)

I eyed the thick steel. (Can you get it open?) I asked him.

(Yes,) he replied, and plugged his computer into an access panel beside the doors. (Ten seconds. Be ready, everyone! There are probably upwards of thirty Kelbrid inside,) he warned.

Marco cracked his huge knuckles. Tobias pawed the steel deck and snorted, ready to charge. (Are you okay, Cassie?) I asked her privately.

(Yes. Focus, Jake,) she told me. The doors slid open, and we charged into –

Nothing. All the lights were off, all the displays and computers were dark. There wasn't a single Kelbrid present. Ax checked his hand-held computer, tapped the screen, and checked it again. (I don't understand, Prince Jake. This is definitely the bridge.)

Suddenly, the projector in the middle of the room lit up. A hologram of a Kelbrid sprang up and clicked his mandibles. "There you are," he said, in English. "Six little Animorphs, all alone on the big, bad, Kelbrid ship."

(Ax? Power that stuff up as fast as you can. Get to work,) I said privately. As he went to the nearest terminal, I said aloud, (What are you so happy about, Harvis? We've got your command ship.)

"And undoubtedly, you think that matters to me," the Yeerk responded. "It doesn't. Long before you are able to power up the weapons, let alone maneuver, I will have blown you out of space. You walked right into my trap, and now you're going to die."

Out of the corner of my eye, I saw the computer Ax was working on hum to life. (Keep him talking,) Ax said tensely. (I should be able to access the slave drive in less than ten minutes.)

I didn't let on that I'd heard anything. (This was your plan?) I asked him, trying to add a note of disbelief to my 'voice.' (To let us take your most powerful ship, and then destroy it? I find that hard to believe.)

"Believe it," Harvis replied coldly. "I have a hundred other ships at my disposal. Destroying one to kill you annoying Animorphs is a tiny price to pay. Even now, as we speak, I am taking my new flagship into position to end you."

(Jake, ask him how he was able to predict all of our moves. It'll buy us time – the bad guys always want to explain their genius before they kill the good guy,) Marco whispered.

(How did you know what we were going to do?) I asked Harvis. (The ambush at the Z-space well, down at the Yeerk pool – how did you know?)

Marco was right. That mandibular smile spread across Harvis' face at once. "Where to start? You humans are not as clever as you think. You're used to fighting the former Visser Three. He is mentally handicapped, compared to myself. If _I_ had been in charge of the invasion of Earth, things would be very different right now." He made his Kelbrid host sputter a sigh. "That's all right, though. These bodies are better that humans for waging war, anyway. Do you know what I plan to do after you're dead?" I didn't reply – Ax was pressing buttons and tapping out keystrokes furiously. "In two month's time, I will have a Yeerk in every Kelbrid. We will then take our fleet to Earth."

(Why?) Cassie blurted. (You just said humans are inferior hosts!) She privately said to me, (I'm okay. I'm just trying to buy Ax more time.)

"Oh, I'm not going there to _enslave_ humans," he clarified. "One thing I learned at Earth is that humans are too much trouble. I plan to burn the planet. Heat it until every living thing on land and under the sea is dead."

(Yes!) Ax exclaimed. (Accessing. Which ship is Harvis on?) he asked, then answered himself. (It doesn't matter – I'll shut the engines down on all of them!)

Someone that I couldn't see in the hologram said something to Harvis. I barely heard him reply, "What do you mean, no power to the engines?" After a few seconds, he said, "No matter. Have KSC-831-A attack the command ship. Now."

This time, I actually heard the response from off screen. "Sir, every ship is sending the same signal. Their engines are not functioning. They're not damaged, they're just not responding."

I could actually see the pieces fall into place in Harvis' head. "No," he whispered. He pointed a claw accusingly at me. "How?"

It was Marco who responded. (Our boy Ax is how. Never underestimate an Andalite. They're real demons when it comes to spaceship computers.)

Harvis punched a few buttons, and the intercom system on our ship crackled to life. "Loyal Yeerks, this is Harvis 1030. The Animorphs have infiltrated your ship and have taken control of the bridge. Anyone able to get there and kill them will be rewarded with their own command. Any Yeerk who hears this -" he was cut off with a squelch.

(Sorry,) Ax said. (I have disabled his ability to use the intercom system. His weapons are dead. I left your link to him active, but he cannot communicate with anyone else. He is yours to do with as you will.)

Harvis obviously heard Ax. (So. You figured out the control ship's secret,) he said. (It appears that I've made the mistake I accused Visser Three of making – I've underestimated you. I suppose you'll want to negotiate, now.)

I laughed. (Negotiate? You're hardly in a position to do that,) I told him.

To my surprise, Harvis smiled again. "What if I told you that I had made a contingency, even for this? What if, right now, a half-dozen ships were on their way to Earth?"

Ax tapped a few keys, and said, (I don't know if he's telling the truth, Prince Jake, but the fleet _is_ missing six ships.)

Harvis pressed on. "What if only I could give them the order not to turn your planet into ashes? What then, Jake the Yeerk-killer?"


	28. Chapter 27 Mexican Standoff

Chapter 27

**Ax**

Jake, in his Siberian tiger form, paced back and forth in front of the hologram. It was something I'd seen him do a few times, right before he launched an attack. (So, what now, Harvis?) he snarled in thought-speech at the same time the tiger actually snarled. (We've got you Yeerks in the palm of our hand. You've taken Earth hostage. What now?)

(Mexican standoff,) Marco said. (I say we kill them all and book it for Earth, try to stop them ourselves. We obviously can't trust this…Yeerk...to keep his word.) The way he said it made me think that 'Yeerk' was not his first choice for a word.

I made my thought-speech private to include only my friends. (Marco's idea is attractive, but it won't work. There is no way I could operate this ship alone.)

Harvis realized we must have been keeping him out of the conversation. "Secrets don't make friends, Jake. I hope you're discussing the terms of your surrender."

Now it wasn't just Jake who snarled; Rachel's grizzly roared, and even mild Cassie growled. My friends were on the edge, and Harvis was pushing them. (Ax, what if we brought Dron aboard, along with some Taruff pilots? Could you fly this thing then?) Jake asked.

I considered. (It isn't likely. The time alone that it would take to learn all of the Kelbrid systems…Dron and I could do it, but we'd have to teach the Taruffs. They're fast learners, but not fast enough. Not if Harvis is telling the truth about his people being on their way to Earth.)

"Whatever you're talking about, remember one thing," Harvis warned. "Your Taruffs on board are likely already dead. You managed to get, what, ten thousand of them on the ship? I have ten times that number of Kelbrid-controllers aboard. It's only a matter of time before they get to you, and when they do, I won't be able to help you."

Rachel had had enough. (Like you want to help us anyway, you _slug_,) she yelled, turning the word 'slug' into a curse. (You know what we're going to do?) She ignored Jake's order to be quiet. (We're going to crash every one of these big ol' ships into a different Yeerk pool. You might get us, but we're definitely going to get _you_. How do you like _that_?)

To my surprise, Harvis actually looked shaken, as if he hadn't considered the possibility. He visibly composed himself and said, "Rachel, is it? You would never do that if it meant your own planet, your own people, would be destroyed. And we both know it."

Marco had also picked up on Harvis' uneasiness. (Wouldn't we?) he asked aggressively. (You've made it pretty clear that the annihilation of the human race is your number one goal. Why wouldn't we take you Yeerks out with us?)

Harvis hesitated. "I still don't believe you'd sacrifice your planet and your people. Now, if you're done insulting my intelligence -"

(Shut up,) Jake said coldly. (Ax, point the Kelbrid ships at the Yeerk home world and prepare to fire the engines. Full burn,) he added.

"You wouldn't!" Harvis screeched. "You would doom the entire human race if you did!"

I didn't know if Prince Jake was bluffing or not, but I started typing in the calculations that would make his order possible. Now that I had hacked into the slave drive, it was a relatively simple matter to fire the maneuvering jets on the ships of the Kelbrid fleet. One by one, the noses of the huge spacecraft all started to point at the planet.

Harvis was near panic, now. "Stop! It doesn't have to end like this! You hear me, Jake? Stop!"

(And how would you have it, Harvis? We let you take your fleet and fly away? That would buy Earth, what, another few weeks? Because we both know as soon as we give up our advantage, you're going to go back on your word,) Jake said.

"Then _you_ propose a way out of this!" Harvis all but screamed. The sight of a hundred huge battleships pointed at his home, like so many gigantic missiles, had truly shaken him.

(Call off your ships going to Earth. Bring them back here. Once we can see them and we know that Earth is safe, we won't go through with blowing your planet to pieces,) Jake told him.

Harvis, as scared as he was, scoffed. "Right. I'll just bring my only leverage into range of the control ship, so you can control them, too. That will make you cooperate," he said sarcastically.

(You don't have a choice,) Jake said simply. (Because the alternative is I tell Ax to press a button, and your world is toast.)

The terminal I was working off of started giving me a signal. Since communication was the only system I had fully operational, I was able to ascertain that someone was trying to hail us. I told Jake in thought-speech.

(Who is it?) he asked me privately.

(I won't know until we take it,) I replied.

Jake turned back to Harvis' hologram. (Why don't you take a few minutes to think it over? I can't look at you any more just now,) he said, and signaled me to cut the hologram, which I did. I pulled up the incoming message.

Amni'bel's image sprung up over the hologram projector. When I saw it was her, I enabled the two-way that would allow her to see us, as well. "Jake, thank the gods. You have control of the ship?" she asked.

Jake shook his massive, tiger head. (No, Princess. We control the bridge, but there are too many controllers for us to control the ship. However this plays out, we're going to have a hell of a time just getting out of here.)

Her orange eyes glowed, as they often did when she was pleased with something. "I may have some news that will brighten your spirit. But first, is it safe for us to come into orbit?"

Jake looked at me, and I nodded. (Yes,) he told her. (We are in control of the Kelbrid ships, for now.) The hologram of Amni'bel split into two, and suddenly she was sharing the space with –

"Howdy, Jake," Admiral Silas said with a grin, chewing on a tobacco roll the humans called a cigar, as always. "Y'all all right?"

A cheer went up around the bridge. Even though I was well on my way to War Prince in the Andalite military, I could not stop myself from joining in. (Admiral! We thought you were dead!) Jake said.

"I thought we were dead, too," Silas said, his grin broadening. "They had us outnumbered. I guess we were too much for them, though. A good-sized portion of both the Earth and Andalite fleets survived."

(Impossible,) I said before I could stop myself. (We ran several different projections, and not one of them gave us a chance of survival, let alone victory.)

Silas gave me an amused look. "Computer projections? Hell, that don't make a hill of beans to us Earthlings. We got coordinated with War Prince Feretor and gave them the ol' hammer-and-anvil. They were too busy trying to dodge their dead ships to notice. Speaking of, those dead ships made _excellent_ cover for our starfighters. They put a hurtin' on us, but between us and the Andalites, we still got almost a full battle group between us."

I was stunned speechless. I knew the humans were resourceful, but this was incredible. Not only were they able to defeat the Kelbrid while keeping a portion of their fleet intact, they'd managed to keep several of my own Andalite ships safe. I couldn't wait to study the telemetry data to find out exactly how they had managed it.

Jake quickly broke down the present situation for the Admiral. "So, long and short of it, you got them by the hair, but this 'Harvis' went ahead and sent an insurance policy to Earth, with orders to destroy it?" the Admiral asked. Jake nodded. "Well, they're in for a surprise. We have anti-starcraft guns hidden on-planet. Only two, but each one is powerful enough to take a chunk out of the moon. Add the fact that I sent a battleship and three cruisers back home right after the battle with the bugs…well, it's enough to keep the Yeerks busy 'til we get back." He looked behind him and started barking orders to his men. "You and the Taruffs can handle these slugs, right?" he asked Jake.

(I think so, Admiral,) Jake said in a slightly awed tone of voice, like he couldn't quite believe everything was working out like it was. (We just have to make sure that the Kelbrid aboard this ship can't get to us, but if we can manage that, Harvis won't be able to touch us.)

Amni'bel spoke up. "Aximili?"

(Yes, Princess?) I replied.

"If you can open the docking bays of your ship, I will begin the landing of my warriors. I will have them comb the ship until every controller is found and killed," she said, her eyes glowing again at the possibility of Taruff victory.

(Prince Jake?) I said questioningly, letting him know that it was his decision.

(Do it…and for the last time, Ax, don't call me Prince,) he said in a light tone. He tilted his head, and I assumed he was listening to a private message. (Princess?) he said. (Please inform your warriors that if any of the Yeerks want to leave their hosts and surrender, they are to accept it.) Ah – it was a message from Cassie, then. Amni'bel bowed her head, a sign that she would comply, and her hologram faded out. Silas threw Jake a salute.

"Sounds good as gravy, Jake, my boy. We're gonna go keep the civilians safe." Jake agreed, and Silas' image faded out, leaving the hologram projector dark.

(Wow,) Marco said, breaking the silence. (Um, am I wrong, or did we just win?)

(I don't think you're wrong,) Tobias said, sounding awed. (We still have to decide what to do with the Kelbrid fleet. Not to mention Harvis and the Yeerks.)

Jake hesitated, and then I swear his tiger morph smiled. (Well, let's take our time talking about it. I don't know about you guys, but I'm kind of enjoying letting Harvis pee his pants over there. Ax? Open those docking bays. Let's let the Taruffs get to work.)


	29. Chapter 28 Dilemmas

A/N – If you people want to know how this story ends, I had better get some reviews. Do it or I KILL YOU! Enjoy, friends :D

Chapter 28

**Marco**

(Harvis is still trying to hail us, Prince Jake,) Ax said. Even though Jake had just told him to quit with the Prince stuff, he did it anyway, and I heard Jake mentally sigh. (The Taruffs have started landing on board, and Amni'bel's cruiser has taken up position directly over the ship Harvis is on.)

(Thanks for the update,) Jake said. (Wait – how do we know which ship he's on?)

(From the communications data. Also, it was the ship heading straight for us when I cut engine power to the fleet.)

(Okay,) he said. (First of all, give him a busy signal or whatever.)

(Done. I have disabled his outgoing communications,) Ax replied almost instantly.

(Good. Actually, do that to all of the ships. I don't want them talking to each other,) Jake ordered. (Now, what are we going to do?) he opened up the floor for us.

Nobody said anything right away, so I started. (It sounds bad, but I think we should still blow them up. How many chances are we going to give them? If we let them live, they're just going to snatch up somebody else's technology, and then we're right back at square one.)

(We can't do that,) Cassie said. She had rarely spoken since we'd left Amni'bel's ship, but I'd fully expected her to argue this point. (They have no way of going anywhere, now. If we disable their Kandronas, they'll have to leave their hosts. Right, Ax?)

Ax shook his head. (Not while they're in this solar system. Their sun will provide them with all the Kandrona rays they need. They can stay on those Kelbrid ships, and in those Kelbrid bodies, indefinitely.)

(I'm with Marco,) Rachel spoke up. (I mean, even if we _can_ get them to leave their hosts and go back to their planet, sooner or later they're going to find a way to escape. Harvis made it clear that we're target number one. We leave a bunch of vengeance-minded Yeerks alive, we're asking for it.)

(Not to be cold-blooded or anything, but we don't need to be crying over the poor Kelbrid who'd die, either,) I said. (Yeerk hosts or not, the Kelbrid are dangerous for everybody. Before Harvis was even involved, the Kelbrid were looking to wipe out the Andalites.)

(So now we're talking about the genocide of _two_ different species?) Cassie asked heatedly. Her wolf eyes bored into Jake. (_Please_ tell me you're not listening to this.) Jake hesitated. (You do this, and we're no better than Nazis. And I will not be a part of it. Not only will I not be a part of it, but I'll fight you.)

I was stunned. Cassie had always stood up for her beliefs, but she was actually threatening us? Over some Yeerks and Kelbrid, our enemies?

(Calm down, Cassie,) Jake said, and there was steel in his voice. (We are _not_ going to start fighting among ourselves. Not now.)

(There are alternatives,) Ax said tentatively. (We do not need to be so extreme.) The heads of five different Earth animals turned to look at him. He hesitated, and I figured it was because some of us weren't going to like what he had to say. I was right. (We don't have anywhere near the number of ships we would need to blockade this planet again. But we could let them stay aboard the Kelbrid ships.)

Everyone started yelling at once, and Jake shushed us. (What do you mean, Ax? That's a pretty dangerous thing for us to do. Given enough time, they could regain control of those ships, couldn't they?)

Ax nodded. (Yes, Prince Jake, but we do not have to give them that opportunity. We could both disarm and demobilize all the craft and just leave them where they are. Floating prisons, if you will. The Yeerks will live out their natural lifespan, but they will not be able to cause any trouble.)

(I like it,) Rachel said immediately. (Isn't that what we did with Visser One, after all? He's in a prison, but he gets everything he needs to live. This would be the same thing. But what about the Yeerks on the planet?)

(There would have to be a garrison,) Ax allowed. (That would be the responsibility of my people, since we gave them the ability to travel in the first place. But with all the Kelbrid craft dead in space, the Yeerks will be crippled. By our estimation, there may be as many as eight rogue Yeerk ships out in the galaxy. Even if all eight of them got together and tried to stage a rescue here, two Dome ships would be enough to stop them.)

This was starting to get complicated. (I see some things that could go wrong, Ax-man,) I said. (For starters, do the Andalites even have two Dome ships to spare right now? Probably not. And what are we going to do with the Kelbrid?)

Ax shrugged. (As for the garrison, my people will find a way to make sure the Yeerks are secure. Like I said, it is our responsibility.)

(And the Kelbrid?) Cassie asked. She didn't sound happy, but I don't think there was anything that _would_ make her happy. She just wanted everyone to get along, and the Yeerks and Kelbrid were not going to let that happen, period.

(Why don't we find out what _they_ want to do?) Tobias asked. (No, hear me out. Direct to the point of near-stupidity – isn't that what you said about them, Ax?) Ax nodded. (So we lay out their options for them. We aren't going to let them go on their way, because they're a threat to peaceful species. But we're not going to kill them, either. How many of their ships would you say they have left in Kelbrid space, Ax?)

(None,) Ax said immediately. (Our spies are positive they took everything they had with them on their leap-frog into Andalite territory.)

(And how long would it take them to rebuild another fleet? To threaten the galaxy again?) I asked.

Ax shrugged. (One thousand standard years? Two? We won't give them the chance, though – just as we blockaded the Yeerk world, we will do the same to the Kelbrid world when we are able. We will not allow this to happen again.)

(Okay,) I said. (Well, here's what we do. We tell the Yeerks they have two choices – they can either leave their hosts, or we'll smash their ships into the planet.) To stall Cassie's argument, I said, (They'll do it. The Yeerks are survivalists. We could leave these Yeerks in their natural state in the shipboard pools. The floating prisons. We could send the uninfested Kelbrid down to the Yeerk homeworld, to do whatever they do when they're not taking over the galaxy. Ax already said the Andalites are going to post some people here to make sure the Yeerks don't escape – they'll be able to keep an eye on the Kelbrid, too.)

Jake looked around. (Any objections?) No one said anything. (All right. We'll go with that, then. Ax, put me through to Harvis.)

As Ax started working on the computer again, I allowed myself to feel a faint bit of optimism. The feeling that maybe, just _maybe,_ we had finally won kept niggling my mind. '_If we can make this work, we'll have done it,_' I thought. _'As unlikely as is seems, we'll have beaten an empire twice.' _ I knew the negotiations would be tough, and actually putting our plan into action even tougher, but for the first time in a long time, I was actually looking forward to something.


	30. Chapter 29 Stalemate

Chapter 29

**Rachel**

Ax finished his uplink to Harvis' current ship, and the Kelbrid-controller's hologram came on-screen. (So _that's_ what an insect about to have a stroke looks like,) Marco said privately to us, and we all had a laugh. Well, all of us except for Cassie. My best friend was understandably depressed – she just wasn't built for this kind of work. The fact that she was even here was a testament to her bravery and heart.

Harvis visibly tried to compose himself. He seemed to want Jake to speak first, and when he didn't, the nervousness got the best of him. "So? Are you going to cooperate with me, or are our species going to eradicate each other?"

(Neither,) Jake said. (You see, what you _don't_ know is that the little attack you planned for Earth is going to fail. A good part of our fleet, along with the Andalites, survived your betrayal to the Kelbrid.)

A shudder racked Harvis' whole body. "Impossible. I ran countless simulations to encompass every possible outcome. If anything, it would have been a few of the Kelbrid that survived, not the other way around."

(Computers cannot predict human behavior and tactics, Yeerk,) Ax said haughtily, as if he hadn't been saying the same thing as Harvis a few moments earlier. (Did you learn _nothing_ from your defeat at Earth?)

(Believe what you want,) Jake said, (but the truth is that your ships are going to encounter a superior force when they pop out of Z-space at our planet. You have no leverage. You have nothing to bargain with. What do you think we should do with you?)

Harvis didn't answer immediately, and when he spoke, it wasn't a reply to Jake's question. "You are serious, aren't you?" Jake nodded, and Harvis turned Jake's question around. "What do you plan to do with us, then?"

(We're not going to kill you Yeerks, if that's what you're wondering,) he told him. (Or the Kelbrid, for that matter.)

Harvis' mandibles stretched open wide in surprise. "No? Twenty minutes ago you were prepared to destroy my world, and that was before you knew your planet was safe from my forces. What changed, now that you have the upper hand?"

(That's what you Yeerks don't understand – it's what you've _never_ understood,) Jake told him, almost sadly. (We don't _want_ this fight. We don't _want_ to be murderers. It's you that makes us that way. If you hadn't threatened us, we'd be on our own world right now, completely ignorant of…well, of _everything_ that wasn't on Earth. It was your people that got us involved in galactic conflicts, Harvis. So blame yourself for this defeat.)

Harvis visibly shored himself up. "Maybe it is _you_ that doesn't understand, Jake. My people have had a taste of freedom. You could never understand how terrible it is to be helpless after you have been strong. How horrible it is to have sight, and then be blinded. What _you_ don't understand is how we would rather die than go back to the prison of the Pools."

To my surprise, it was Cassie that replied. (Wrong, Harvis. You're wrong,) she said softly. (Look at the other side of that coin. Can't you imagine how awful it would be to be born free, to be born with all the qualities you just described, and then have them stolen from you? To have something make you a slave inside of your own body? Have you ever even _tried _to put yourself in your hosts' shoes?)

Harvis released a sputtering, Kelbrid sigh. "I believe this is what you humans call an impasse," he said. "And since we will never come to an agreement, the winner will make the rules. What will you do with us?" he asked again.

(You will leave your Kelbrid hosts and return to the pools you have placed aboard the Kelbrid ships. We will put the free Kelbrid on your planet, and you Yeerks will remain in the pools on the ships. Just in case you manage to get a hold of any hosts again, we will strip those ships of their engines and weapons. We won't kill you, but we're not going to give you a way to keep enslaving people,) Jake said, almost gently.

Harvis sighed again. "And if we refuse?" he asked, but there was no defiance in the question. It was just curiosity that made him ask.

(You know what happens then,) Jake said. (We'll be forced to destroy you.)

"Like I said, Jake, we would rather die. And I meant it. If we're going to die or be doomed to a Pool for the rest of our lives, you and your friends are going to pay for it," he said, and I felt a mental cold chill. Something about the matter-of-fact way he said it scared me. Something told me he wasn't threatening or bluffing. Something told me he had one more ace up his sleeve.

Obviously, Ax thought so, too. He began furiously working on the ship's computer, and privately said, (Prince Jake, he obviously has one last contingency. I am rapidly scanning the ship for a clue as to what he has planned, but I need time. You have to keep him talking! I need time!) he said, as close to panicking as Ax ever got.

It was contagious. I couldn't shake the feeling that Harvis was telling the truth. '_Why would he throw an empty threat at us at this point? He's beaten, it wouldn't change anything._'

(Not that there's any way for you to 'make us pay,') Jake said, acting as if he didn't believe Harvis' threat, (But what if there _were_ a way to compromise? Say we came up with a way to, I don't know, make robotic hosts for you or something?) He was reaching, and desperately, but he was playing it the right way. (Would we be able to trust you if we could give you the power you want, without any sentient beings having to give up their freedom?)

Harvis made his Kelbrid host smile. "Of course you wouldn't trust us," he said. "Nice try. I assume your pet Andalite told you to stall me while he tries to find out what I have in store for you. No, I'm afraid I can't give you that opportunity." He reached out of the camera's view, and when he brought his claw back into view, he was holding a small computer, not unlike the one Ax had used to hack the Kelbrid ship. He held it up for us to see. "You may have control over my ship, but you do not control this. It is a remote trigger to a bomb hardwired into your ship's engine cluster. You have conveniently poured most of your forces into that ship. We might be dead when the rest of your military returns, but you will die first."

(I've located the explosive, but I can't disable it!) Ax yelled. Without bothering to access the intercom, he shouted in thought-speech as loud as he could. (Taruffs! Anyone who can hear me! The Yeerks have an explosive device planted in the engine room! Find it, they plan to destroy us with it!)

(Open that door!) I cried to Ax. (I'll go myself!) I knew I didn't have enough time to get there, and I wouldn't even know what to do if I _did_ make it, but that didn't matter. If I was going to die, I was going to die trying. (Do it!)

(You'll be carved up before you can take two steps,) Ax said. Then he said something that _really_ turned my blood to ice water. (Prince Jake, it has been an honor serving you. _I am the servant of the people. I am the servant of my Prince. I am the servant of honor…_) I realized he was doing the Andalite death ritual.

(No,) I whispered. (Not like this.) I started demorphing. We all did. If this was it, I wanted to be in my own body. I wanted to see my love, Tobias, with my own eyes. I wanted to be with my cousin, Jake, my best friend, Cassie, and my fellow warriors, Marco and Ax. And I wanted it to be as myself. Because I knew deep down that this was the end – the Ellimist couldn't step in to save us this time. This was purely human verses Yeerk, and the Yeerk had outfoxed us. (You win, Harvis,) I said directly to the Yeerk. (Even though we're enemies, give us the chance to get out of these morphs. Let us die with each other.)

I expected the Yeerk to laugh at me, to call me a name, or just to press the button that would kill us all. To my surprise, he hesitated, then took his claw away from the remote. "I can give you one minute," he said. "You're worthy of that."

As everyone finished demorphing, we gathered together. I held Tobias' hand on one side and Jake's on another. When we were all linked together, human and Andalite, we began to say our goodbyes.


	31. Chapter 30 To The End

Chapter 30

**Tobias**

Have you ever been absolutely sure that you were about to die?

I don't mean being in a dangerous situation where death is possible, or even likely. The human brain is an amazing machine. As the odds of survival get worse, it'll start working overtime, finding even the tiniest possibility to get you out alive. Your brain does not let you give up if there's even the slightest chance to make it. But when the possibilities go to zero and there's nothing to latch on to, no last, desperate gamble to let you hold onto hope, your brain will still protect you.

The thought process right before certain death is hard to describe, and even harder to understand. You'd think there would be overwhelming sadness, and there _is_ sadness. But more than anything, you feel happy and grateful. Certain death is like the world's best antidepressant. Every single negative thought buried deep inside you evaporates, leaving only a feeling of intense well-being. Instead of lamenting the things you never got to do, or say, you feel grateful for the things that you _did_ have a chance to experience.

I wasn't focused on the fact that I was about to lose a normal future with Rachel. I was just grateful for the time we'd had together. There were a thousand things I should have said to her. But now that we were out of time, it was okay that those things were unsaid. Because, deep down, I _knew_. I knew that she knew. We looked into each other's eyes, and all of those unspoken words of love and appreciation were understood just as well as if they'd been said a hundred times.

"We gave them a good run, huh guys?" Marco asked. "We did our job, right?"

Jake nodded. "We did our job. It might not seem like it, but we won. We kept the peace. Everybody back home will have a good life because of us."

Cassie sobbed. She said through the tears, "It's worth it."

(My life is given for the people, for my prince, and for my honor,) Ax repeated the last part of his Andalite death ritual. He smiled with his eyes and added, (My life is given for my friends. For the Animorphs.) He looked directly at me with all four eyes. (For my family.)

An intense wave of emotion rolled over me. "Elfangor would be so proud of us, Ax. Of _all_ of us," I said forcefully.

Rachel smiled. "Who'd have thought five human kids and an Andalite _aristh_ could have made it this far? Who'd have thought we'd topple an empire?"

Marco actually laughed. "Elfangor did. He knew. We did it because we never told ourselves we couldn't. We believed, because Elfangor believed."

"Guys…" Jake started, then shook his head. Whatever he had been about to say stuck in his throat. "Thanks," he said instead.

That moment in time was perfect, or as close to perfection as we would ever experience. I felt like I knew true grace. I almost wished Harvis would go ahead and press the button, before the moment passed us by. I guess Jake felt the same way, too. He let go of Rachel's other hand just long enough to push the hair out of his eyes. He straightened up and looked directly at the hologram of our enemy. "We're ready, Harvis."

Harvis, who had been watching our entire exchange, hesitated. I wasn't naïve enough to think our goodbyes had struck a nerve with him – the Yeerks don't do love. They can be fond of something, but they don't do true love. Still, he hesitated.

"Are you sure you don't want to let us go?" Harvis asked. "Give me back control of my ships, and you all live. I know my word is no good with you, but I _would_ let you live."

Jake actually smiled at him. "I believe that you would, Harvis. I really do. But this is the moment. This is the time. Our lives are the cost of freedom in this universe – I think, deep down, we always knew that was the case. We're ready."

"You humans are brave. Foolish, but brave," Harvis said.

And then, he pressed the button.


	32. Chapter 31 Resolution, Part 1

Chapter 31

**Marco**

As Harvis pulled the trigger on the bomb he'd hidden aboard the ship we were on, I closed my eyes. I tried to prepare myself for the nothingness that Rachel had described, back when the Ellimist had brought her back into the world of the living. I wasn't totally disappointed.

Nothing happened.

I opened my eyes, and saw the hologram of Harvis stabbing the button on his computer again and again. One by one, the rest of my friends slowly opened their eyes, as well. Jake had sweat beading his forehead, and he let out a deep breath. I, too, let out the breath I hadn't been aware I was holding. If an Andalite could ever be said to tip-toe, Ax did just that back to the computer terminal he'd been working at, as if he were afraid a heavy hoof on the deck would set off the bomb. He studied the readout for a short moment, and then scared the living crap out of all of us by letting out a thought-speech yell. (The explosive device is off-line. Harvis' trigger shut it down, rather than detonating it.)

A sound like a train whistle filled the bridge, and after a second I realized the sound was coming from Harvis' hologram. It was a Kelbrid cry of pure rage. "That's enough of that – Ax?" Jake said. Ax immediately shut the hologram off, and the piercing noise stopped.

Everyone was looking at each other with this, _duuuhhh_ sort of look. "The Taruffs?" I asked. "Did they get to it in time, Ax?"

Whatever reply he was going to make was cut off by the crackling of the intercom, once again. "Animorphs. This is Rackar 1225. You are safe. My brothers and sisters aboard this ship are surrendering their Kelbrid hosts to the Taruffs at this time. I will remain in my Kelbrid host only long enough for us to negotiate our surrender, and will leave it peacefully when we are finished. If I may, I would like to join you on the bridge to discuss terms."

"It's a trap," Rachel warned.

I sighed in exasperation. "Rachel, if they wanted us dead, we'd be dead." We all looked to Jake, who shrugged.

"Battle morphs, just in case. Ax, tell him to come on in once we're morphed. If this Rackar wants to talk, we'll talk."

As I started morphing Big Jim the gorilla, I noticed that my face was actually _losing_ hair. Well, it was more like my rough beard was migrating to the sides of my head, away from Jim's rubbery muzzle. It wasn't as good as a shave, but it was nice. After watching Jake shred himself trying to shave with a razor-sharp Taruff dagger, I'd pretty much accepted the fact I'd have to wait until I got home to get the hair off of my face.

Even though I'd done this morph no less than a hundred times, I still relished the feeling of my muscles growing muscles, and then those muscles growing more muscles. I was in decent shape, for a human, but the gorilla made Schwarzenegger look like a girly-man. I let Big Jim's docile, confident attitude bubble up beside my own mind. I didn't give it control, but I shared with it. Big Jim didn't care about a bomb, or the Yeerks, or the Kelbrid. Big Jim really just wanted to find a nice piece of fruit and lounge in some sunny patch of grass.

(Rackar 1225, we will open the bridge doors when you are ready. Please come alone,) Ax said in broad-band thought speech. I was a little surprised at the polite, almost deferential tone Ax used. That Andalite superiority was not present, and I realized why. This Rackar had gone against Harvis and saved our lives. I'd never known any Yeerk to do anything unless there was personal gain involved, but that was beside the point right now. Whether we liked it or not, we owed this Yeerk. We owed him big time.

"I am just outside of the bridge, and I am alone," came the voice over the intercom.

(Do it,) Jake said to Ax, fully Siberian tiger again. Ax opened the thick doors, and a lone Kelbrid walked onto the bridge. Ax quickly closed the doors behind him.

The Kelbrid smiled, and for some reason, it didn't feel malicious. Not like when Harvis did it, for instance. "I want to begin by saying the Kelbrid is voluntarily letting me have control. He knows I will release him as soon as we are done here. I have explained everything to him, as I will do for you."

(We have no reason not to trust you,) Jake said kindly. (Why don't you just start at the beginning?)

The Kelbrid-controller nodded. "I am one of the leaders of…a new movement among my people. It is an offshoot of the Peace Movement. Let me assure you that you are in no danger on this ship, either from my people or from Harvis. You will not be harmed here."

(Thank you,) Jake said cautiously. (I hope it doesn't offend you, but we're going to stay in morph anyway. Just until we can be sure. You understand?)

Rackar did another Kelbrid smile. "Of course I do. Your people have endured much suffering because of mine. We fully expect you to be careful in dealing with us."

(How do you know all the controllers on this ship are loyal to you?) I asked. It was a legitimate concern – if there was one thing I knew about Yeerks by now, it was that betrayals between them were pretty common.

"They aren't loyal to me, or to _any _Yeerk – they are loyal to the idea of peace. It was Harvis who made sure of that. He made no secret of the fact that we were to be sacrificed to kill you. He was willing to kill a hundred-thousand Yeerks to destroy five humans and an Andalite. That goes beyond revenge – its madness."

(I'm sorry if I sound skeptical,) I said sincerely. (If you are what you say you are, then we'll be extremely happy to work with you. I think I can speak for everyone on that.) No one disagreed. (I just don't know how to get past these trust issues. I mean, you didn't blow us all up – that's a start. But you know we can't let you take hosts. I don't see a way around it.)

"Ah, but Jake said it himself. He came up with the solution we can all live with, without even realizing it. We are tired of fighting and dying in order to stay out of the pools. Some Yeerks take pleasure in crushing their host, but that's a learned behavior. We can just as easily teach our young ones that we will get further as a species with pacifism."

(What's your idea, Rackar?) Cassie asked, and for the first time in a long time, her 'voice' was light. This was her dream come true.

"We put ourselves completely at your mercy. Every Yeerk will have a choice – if they fight this progression, they'll be imprisoned, just as Visser One is on Earth. If they submit, they will go back to a pool. We all will. What we want is mobility, sight, and the ability to communicate. That's what all this killing and enslaving has been for, when you get right down to it. We will return to our pools peacefully, under the promise that you humans will help us gain these things. We will even leave it up to you how it happens. Perhaps you will choose to build us robotic bodies, as Jake suggested to Harvis. Perhaps you will be able to genetically engineer a non-sentient, harmless body for us to use. We Yeerks would leave that to your people. All we ask is that you help us leave the pools. We will accept however you choose to do this." He hesitated. "Perhaps, sometime in the distant future, when we have proven ourselves to you, we will be able to coexist. To be allies."

(You realize that I can't promise you anything like that,) Jake said. (If they are able to have complete control over the process, I'm almost sure that our people could come up with some kind of compromise. But a decision this huge would take time. I have influence in our political system – we all do – and I _can_ promise you that we'll use every bit of it to help you. But I just can't promise you anything on the spot.)

Rackar nodded. "I know. And, as a show of good faith, we will begin the process without any promises from you. We'll go back to the pools to wait on your decision. Because, ultimately, we know the course we have been on was wrong. Most of us, anyway. Just like you humans, some of us Yeerks will be unredeemable. There are always bad people, regardless of species. But at least a hundred-thousand of us are willing to take the first step toward peace. I'm confident more will follow."

(Is anyone else's mind blown right now?) I asked my friends privately. (I mean, am I dreaming?)

(How can we say no?) Cassie asked. (This is a perfect situation. No risk for us. The Yeerks will voluntarily surrender their hosts, putting themselves completely in our hands? I don't think we could have come up with a better end to this story in our wildest dreams.)

(Prince Jake, my people will not help. If you agree to this, if you bring this before your people, do not expect the Andalites to join you. I do not think they will fight you, as long as you take steps to make sure the Yeerks are not capable of making war, but they will never help. The law of Seerow's Kindness will be enforced forever,) Ax said. His voice was strained. (I am not saying that I disagree with this course of action. I can see the potential. I am simply telling you the position my people will take.)

(I understand,) Jake said. (Rackar? All I can give you is my word that I will do my best. I will try to find a way to make peace between our species. You and your people voluntarily abandoning their hosts will go a long way towards helping your cause. Harvis, and the Yeerks loyal to him, will be subject to our law. A lot of humans, Andalites, Taruffs, and Kelbrid are dead because of him. Harvis and his followers will have to answer for that. But as harsh as I expect my people to be on him, I think that you and the Yeerks like you will be given a second chance. Humans can forgive.)

He smiled. "I know. I am staking the entire future of my race on it."


	33. Chapter 32 Resolution, Part 2

Chapter 32

**Jake**

We were finally home.

The glorious celebration of our return was just as big of a deal as it was the last time. All of the hubbub was really starting to bore me. At Marco's insistence, I'd agreed to do a number of token appearances on talk shows and news programs. I still couldn't get used to seeing myself on the TV, with 'Jake Berenson – Rebel Leader, Human/Yeerk Conflict' underneath my face. Like five words under my name could sum up everything my friends and I had seen and done in the past nine years.

My likeness on TV was speaking. "Well, Wolf, it's not like we went to the Yeerk home world looking for a way to make peace," I was saying. This particular interview had been done just this morning. "Actually, we were just trying to disable the Kelbrid fleet, thereby rendering the Yeerks immobile. We basically wanted to take away their ability to spread. We didn't have high hopes," my face on the television scrunched up, like I was remembering something painful. "Then, when the Yeerks had us in the worst possible position, we were contacted by a different Yeerk leader. This Yeerk simultaneously saved our lives and took his own people out of the position of power they'd acquired. He voluntarily de-hosted all of his fellow Yeerks."

Wolf Blitzer's image gave mine a look of disbelief. "After everything we saw of the Yeerks here on Earth, you're telling me that this one individual totally changed the course of the Yeerk mission, as a species?"

"Not totally. Several patches of resistance to peace sprang up. I am told by our military forces that Rackar 1225, the pro-peace Yeerk, dealt with these uprisings himself, using his own forces. No human life was lost in the Yeerks' transition from host to pool."

Wolf interrupted again. "So, we have a blockade of their planet. All the Yeerks returned to their pools, and the surviving Kelbrid were stranded on the planet. Neither of them have any way to cause trouble, even if they wanted to. We have possession of the Kelbrid war ships. Basically, we have an all-out human victory. Why are we still debating what to do with the Yeerks? Seems to me it's already done."

TV-Jake didn't answer for a moment. He seemed to be deep in thought. Finally, he said, "It _does_ seem that way. And after everything we – I – went through, a part of me is tempted to just call it a day. Leave them in their pools, where they can't do any more harm. But a much bigger part of me doesn't like that. You see, all this was started because the Yeerks wanted what other species had. They tried subversion, force, war. It didn't work – they realized that when they ran up against us. They decided that they had to go another way – diplomacy. They trust us to do the right thing. Honestly, if not for Rackar, they'd probably be out there right now, taking bodies by force, with a whole new starfleet. Rackar saw another way – a more _human_ way. If we don't help them, one day, they'll realize that they made a mistake. That trusting us – trusting _me_ – wasn't in their best interest after all. That maybe they had it right before, that they had to _take_ what they wanted."

My concentration on my TV interview was broken as a pillow hit me in the face. "You're such a cheeseball," Rachel laughed. "You're so…_respectable_!" she laughed again.

"I think he's great," Cassie said, with a mild blush. "He says what he means, and keeps his word. I admire it."

I motioned for her to join me in the easy chair I was in. Me, Rachel, Tobias, Ax and Cassie were hanging out in my hotel room in London. Marco was out at some function, getting more famous than he already was. London was to be the site of the World Court's most recent issue – what to do about the Yeerks and Kelbrid. Of course, my friends and I would be a big part of the proceedings. Cassie climbed into the oversized chair with me, and I kissed her forehead. "Thanks, Cass. But seriously, I'm worried about tomorrow. What if they don't see it like I do? I mean, the six of us can't even agree on what to do. How are we going to get anything done?"

Ax had talked to his people as soon as we'd gotten back. As predicted, they were staunchly opposed to the idea of helping the Yeerks gain mobility. Ax had gotten them to agree not to declare war on us humans, if that was the way the decision went. Getting even that much out of them was a big deal, and wouldn't have been possible without War Prince Aximili basically demanding it. Ax thought that giving the Yeerks any sort of host was a bad idea, too, but he'd been there. He knew firsthand how close to death we'd been, and how it was Rackar that saved us.

Cassie was all for it. Rachel didn't care, one way or another. In her eyes, the Yeerks had done more harm than one good Yeerk could make up for. She wasn't going to oppose the Yeerk Liberation (as it was already being called in the media,) but she wasn't going to fight for it, either. Tobias, as usual, stood with Rachel. Marco was fine with helping the 'good' Yeerks, so long as it didn't get in the way of his career.

In short, it was pretty much up to me to keep my promise to Rackar. Cassie would help me, but she had already been labeled as a 'do-gooder' here on Earth. Some comedian had already done a skit with Cassie petitioning for ticks' rights to vote. She was seen as too soft.

Me? I was hard. The media loved to present me as this stone-cold, calculating, teenage general. Someone who looked out for humans first, and everybody else second, if at all. I usually felt self-conscious about my image, but right now, I was glad for it. It would help my case – if I, of all people, could look past all the horrible stuff the Yeerks had done, why shouldn't everyone else at least consider it?

"They're going to be looking for someone to crucify," Tobias said. "It's just the way people are. We lost a huge portion of our military because of the Yeerks. Thousands of human lives lost. Our people aren't going to want to help them, they're going to want to burn them."

"That's what Harvis is for," I said mildly. Harvis was under lock-and-key somewhere near the World Courthouse. The first order of business was his trial – I doubted if it would last as long as Visser Three's trial. Lifetime upon lifetime in prison was going to be his fate.

I was hoping that after the trial, humans wouldn't be so hot to bash Yeerks. No one had ever gotten over what the Yeerks had done to us, but I was hoping that, by putting their last warlord away for good, people would finally come around to the fact that not every single Yeerk in the galaxy was evil incarnate. They had tormented me and my friends for a good portion of our lives – if we could get past that, hopefully, so could everyone else.

(Humans will have many questions,) Ax said. (I am not trying to cast doubt, Prince Jake, merely facing reality. They will wonder where these peaceful Yeerks were while humans were being enslaved. While they were being murdered. They will wonder if this is just a Yeerk ploy to regain power. And they will wonder why they should waste human resources on such a plain enemy. The fact that my people oppose a plan to help the Yeerks will speak volumes to yours. They will question everything. Can you provide answers, Prince Jake? Can you truly advocate helping the Yeerks after what they have done?)

"I don't know," I said slowly, and I really didn't. Even now, I wasn't sure how I felt about the situation. My whole life, the Yeerks had been the enemy. In an instant, that unshakable truth had been shaken. "I _do_ know that I'll keep my promise, though. I will do my best to present the Yeerk Peace Movement's case to humans. I'll use my influence to try to find a way to coexist with the Yeerks. Sure, sometimes I think that eradicating them would be the easy, cheap solution. I also know that doing that would start us down a dark path. Rackar said he was counting on the humans' ability to forgive. If we lose that, we lose what makes us human in the first place."

Rachel looked troubled. "I'm with you, Jake, you know that. But are we just repeating the Andalites' mistake? Seerow's mistake?" It was impossible to miss the way Ax flinched at Seerow's name. "They tried to help the Yeerks, and we almost got enslaved for it. It doesn't matter that he had the best intentions. If we meddle, is some other innocent race going to suffer for it? That's what keeps me up at night."

I had had those same thoughts, but I hadn't wanted to consider them. It was too big to wrap my head around. It was like trying to understand infinity. "I don't know. How can I predict things like that? I don't _want_ to be in this position. I don't _want_ to have my decisions influence things for decades, centuries to come. The thing is, we already meddled. We're smack in the middle of this, whether I like it or not. And I feel like to not see it through would be…well, it would be weak. Cowardly. Sometimes I feel like I've earned the right to wash my hands of it, to tell everybody that I've done enough, so leave me alone."

"Nobody would argue that," Cassie interjected quietly.

"Yeah. But every time I start thinking like that, this little voice in my head speaks up. It says, 'What if you'd given in to that sort of thinking when you were fourteen? What if you'd quit then?' And I know the answer to that. We wouldn't be sitting here right now. Like it or not, for better or for worse, we've changed the galaxy. Not just the world, the _universe_. I'm in the middle of it. We all are. Doing our best has been good enough so far. I guess that's all we can do – continue to do our best."

No one really knew what to say about that. I had gone and done it again – turned an everyday moment into some deep philosophical conversation. But if I didn't get these things out, I felt like I would explode. There were exactly five people in existence that could understand, and four of them were in this room.

Ax smiled with his eyes. (Prince Jake, I would follow your best effort any day. I feel optimistic every day, because I know you will _always_ do your best. Your best is better than anyone else's.)

I didn't know what to say. Whenever Ax said things like that, in his matter-of-fact, Andalite way, I couldn't help but to take it to heart.

"Me too. Your best has always been good enough, Big Jake," Tobias said.

"You're way too serious, cousin. But I've never seen you back down when someone needs to step up, and that's why you'll do fine at the World Court. It's who you are," Rachel added with a grin.

Cassie looked up at me. She looked into my eyes until she was sure I was looking back, and said, "You're the most practical-but-moral person I've ever known. Nobody else could handle this but you. You were made for this moment. Just be you, and it'll work out how it's supposed to. Relax. Be yourself."

I smiled down at her. "Be me?" She nodded. "Okay," I said, and I kissed her. I always felt better when I was with her like this, and I think she knew that.

I _know_ she knew that.


	34. Chapter 33 Resolution, Part 3

A/N – Just want to take a sec to thank a few people. Cantthinkofaname5, Ta-dao, Callisto's Moon, and KingofSoda, thank you again _sooo _much for your continued support. I am but your humble servant, and I write for you. And of course, as always, for my homegirl – the lovely and inaptly named uncutetomboy.

Chapter 33

**Cassie**

"And now we will move on to the Yeerk Liberation issue," the World Court moderator announced. "Our panel of judges' decision, either yes or no, will be honored by the whole of the human race. This is the power they were selected to hold by the people of Earth."

Harvis' trial had been short, almost insignificant. He and his lieutenants were placed on the defense table in their Yeerk boxes, the ones that let them hear and speak in their natural form. A list of their crimes (and it was a _long _list) were read off, and they were asked for their pleas. Harvis had replied, "I refuse to cooperate with your ridiculous human ceremony." This was taken as a guilty plea, and they were sentenced to twelve consecutive Yeerk lifetimes in prison.

The Court's moderator continued. "The case of the Yeerk Liberation will be presented by both sides of the issue, by Court-appointed delegates. Please take your places, now." Roughly a dozen people stood, splitting into two groups in front of the judges. Jake motioned to me, and I realized belatedly that I was one of the pro-liberation delegates. I joined him at the table on the left.

A suave, olive-skinned man with the slightest of accents stood from his place at the head of our table. "I ask the court to allow the man who brought this matter to our attention to speak first. I ask that Mr. Jake Berenson be allowed to take the stand."

The head judge either didn't see Jake's shocked expression, or chose to ignore it. "It seems only right. Mr. Berenson?" He gestured to the empty, waiting speakers' lecturn.

Jake shook himself out of the surprise he must have felt at being called out so early. After all, we were warriors, when you got down to it, not politicians. This was their world, and we were only allowed to intrude because of the central role we played in the issues at hand. Jake walked slowly to the lecturn, gathering his thoughts. Rachel leaned forward from her place in the front row and whispered to me, "You could have at least straightened his tie for him. He looks like a ten year old that was forced to wear his dad's old suit."

I ignored her and focused on Jake. He pulled several notecards out of his jacket pocket, but laid them on the podium without looking at them. He took a longer-than-usual amount of time to gather himself, I guess, because people in the gallery started coughing obnoxiously and clearing their throats. Jake ignored them, and I felt a measure of pride in him. That was definitive Jake – he didn't rattle when he needed to be solid.

"Well, I guess we all know why we're here," he said softly. The coughing and throat-clearing ended abruptly – no one wanted to miss what he was saying. "On the surface, it may seem stupid to even be talking about this. Yeerks – they've always been our enemy, haven't they? We've been doing our best to keep them out of host bodies, practically since we knew they existed. Lots of humans have lost their lives to that goal."

The lady to my right leaned over and whispered to her partner, "Who's side is he on?"

"I get that. I really do," Jake continued. "Maybe better than anybody. It seems insane to think back to that time, back during the secret invasion of Earth. My friends and I were young – way too young to deal with the bomb Prince Elfangor dropped on us. Half of us weren't even in our teens yet. But we didn't have a choice. There was no one we could tell, no one we could trust. We were just kids, but we had to fight a lonely war. But that wasn't the worst part. The worst part was that we had to do it in secret. We had to live normal lives as teenagers, which everybody knows is hard enough." He paused for effect, and I could see everyone in the Courthouse thinking back to their teenage years. No one escaped those years without some scars.

"In addition to trying to survive being teenagers, we were throwing ourselves at the Yeerks at every given opportunity. We hurt them, but they hurt us, too. None of my friends sleep without nightmares. None of us can ever truly, one hundred percent relax, even now. That's just the price of fighting that kind of war. The Yeerks stole things from us, things we can never get back."

The same lady to my right whispered again, this time sounding even angrier. "Tell Francois to stop him. He's burying our case." The man she was speaking to, obviously transfixed by Jake's calm-yet-intense speech, shushed her.

"I'm just trying to make a point," Jake said, as if he'd heard the woman at our table. "For as long as I've known they existed, I've hated the Yeerks. My life has been dedicated to hurting and killing and stopping them whenever I could. This last fight, in orbit above the Yeerk home world, should have been my last. After years of narrow escapes, a Yeerk named Harvis finally had my friends and I in an impossible situation. All he had to do to kill us was press a button. And guess what? He pressed that button. I should not be here talking to you right now. By all means, everyone in this room should either be dead, or trying to survive another Yeerk assault. The atrocities the Yeerks committed in California should be worldwide. Only one thing stopped it from happening, and it wasn't me. It wasn't my friends, or the Andalites, or our military. It was another Yeerk."

Jake took a short pause, and finally scanned his notecards. He looked up again. "I guess it was dumb of me to judge every existing Yeerk based on the actions of some. All I'd ever had contact with were Yeerks that wanted to do us harm, so it was kind of an automatic prejudice. I ask you not to make the same mistake. Even though I just found out they even existed, there _are _good, decent Yeerks out there. And one of them, Rackar 1225, cut the issue right down to the core – all of this war and violence was because of one thing. The Yeerks want – _need _– host bodies. The people of the universe will not give up their freedom in order for the Yeerks to have those bodies. It seems, on the surface, like an impasse. Like the cycle of war is inevitable." He scratched his head timidly, like what he was about to say was stupid. "Look, out of all the combined intelligence of the known species of this universe, are you telling me we can't figure out a relatively simple way to solve this problem? If the Yeerks have hosts that they don't have to fight and conquer for, wouldn't that cycle of war be pointless? We make prosthetics for people who are disabled – isn't this the same thing? If we just looked at the Yeerks as disabled and attacked the problem from that angle, couldn't we have them mobile in a short period of time?"

"What If the Yeerks only goal _isn't _host bodies?" a man from the opposing table demanded. "What if hosts are only a means to an end? Like, galactic domination? We'd just be handing them the keys to be able to do that!"

Jake sighed. "I thought that would be pretty obvious. If the Yeerks main goal was galactic domination, I wouldn't be having this talk with you right now. Rackar would have let Harvis blow us to hell, and there'd be a hundred Yeerk-controlled Kelbrid battleships in orbit. They already _had _the keys to domination – Rackar handed them back to us and asked for help."

The man who'd interrupted him opened his mouth to reply, but couldn't seem to find the words. Jake's logic _was _pretty rock-solid, at least on this particular point.

"Look, I'm not saying we should jump into this head first. I'm not saying we shouldn't be careful. All I'm saying is that, in the long run, wouldn't it be easier – not to mention more decent – to work with the Yeerks instead of debasing them? Kicking them while they're down, especially when they laid down voluntarily, seems like a pretty crappy thing to do. Almost every nation on this planet has fought with one another at some point. Now, we're all allies. I guess I just don't see why we can't take the opportunity we've got and turn one more enemy into an ally." Jake stuck his notecards back into his pocket, took a second to look embarrassed, and said, "That's all I've got. I just don't want my grandkids to have to fight Yeerks because I didn't do the decent thing when I had the chance." With those words of naked, youthful honesty, he left the stand without waiting to be dismissed.


	35. Chapter 34 Epilogue, Part 1

Chapter 34

**Marco**

Once again, my boy Jake had pulled off the impossible. He'd gotten first a room full, then a _planet_ full of people who hated the Yeerks to get on board with helping them. I had no idea how they were actually going to make it a reality – the whole thing was out of our hands now, a runaway train we'd set in motion. Well, that Jake had set in motion, anyway. The World Court had unanimously voted in favor of taking steps toward human-Yeerk cooperation. Rackar was a direct liaison to the Yeerk Liberation Council set up by the Court. We hadn't gotten the chance to speak with Rackar since the Kelbrid ship (and we _could _speak to him, thanks to the Andalite-made Yeerk boxes that let them at least communicate,) but I assumed he was happy, driving the work forward he'd so desperately gambled for.

The Andalites were royally pissed at us for our decision to help the Yeerks, but Ax had managed to calm the tensions. The same council that had been appointed to find a way to make the Yeerks ambulatory had been handed a list of demands from the Andalite high command, which had been quickly agreed to. The gist of the demands was this – the Yeerks were not to be armed, they were not to be given free space travel, and they were never to be allowed to take a sentient host. Both the Yeerk Liberation Council and Rackar had found these demands fairly easy to live with, and everyone was moving forward.

Home. There really was nothing like it. I have to admit, I had been beginning to take my opulent lifestyle for granted when we had to rush off to save Ax's butt. Nothing like living in space for a solid year to make you appreciate the comforts of home. The Animorphs were lounging in my living room. We were all watching my giant plasma TV – everybody still got a kick out of seeing themselves on world news programs.

Of course, now that we were back, all the stations were running their "What Are the Animorphs Up To Now?" programs. The world still cared what we were doing in our off-time, for some reason. In my case, it was hugely helpful – I'd been receiving calls from directors, producers, and investors almost non-stop since our return. I was taking a short break, but when I was ready to get back to work, the formula for success was there for me. I'd even had time to make the call to Ferrari. When Rachel's birthday rolled around, she was going to have a brand-new sports car from me.

As the news segment rolled into some story about Microsoft's newest bid to involve themselves in the Yeerk Liberation Project, Tobias stretched. "So, what do you guys want to get into today?" he asked.

I threw a piece of ice from my glass at him. "The first thing _you're _going to do is get your feet off my couch." He snickered and made a show of grinding his shoes into the cushion.

Cassie ignored this. "I was thinking we could go to the beach. I could use some no-pressure fun in the sun," she said languidly.

"I'm down," Rachel said instantly. "See if me and ol' Jake still remember how to hang ten."

Jake nodded enthusiastically. "Already got the boards in the wagon," he said, motioning toward the front of my house where his piece-of-crap Bronco was parked.

"Wetherbee!" I bellowed. He appeared damn near instantly, and I smiled, despite myself. '_It's _so _nice to be home,_' I mused. "What's up, dude?" I asked him.

"Nothing, _suuh_," he replied in his professional, clipped English accent, drawing out the word _sir_. "How may I be of assistance?"

"Would you pack a picnic lunch for the five of us? We're going to be hitting the beach." Rachel shot me a dirty look, and I sighed but added, "Please?" Rachel insisted that I be polite to Wetherbee when she was around. Probably because she was jealous that I had a butler and she didn't. Probably.

Once Wetherbee had finished making the picnic and placed the coolers in the back of Jake's truck, he asked me, "Will _suuh _be requiring my services at the beach?" He looked disturbed at the thought he might have to get his impeccable suit sandy.

"Nah. Take the morning off," I told him easily. He bowed and disappeared into the house. Rachel and Jake slipped past him, coming out into the driveway dressed in their wetsuits. Rachel looked absolutely _jazzed _– there was no other word for it. She was literally glowing.

"I gotta ask," I said. "What is so exciting? Surfing? We've been in an intergalactic war for the past year – I'd think that surfing with Jake would be pretty tame by comparison."

"Since when do I have to be in the middle of a fight to be excited about something?" she asked, not losing her million-dollar smile.

"Uhh…since always?" I said. She just ignored me and flashed that perfect smile again.

"Guys, it's so pretty out here, I just can't stand it," Tobias said. "I'm going flying. I'll meet you guys there."

"Me too," Rachel said instantly. "Hitting a few thermals, then catching some waves? Pretty much my definition of a perfect day."

"I'll fly, too," Cassie said, as if it were contagious. And I guess it _was _catching, because all of a sudden, I was overwhelmed with the urge to fly, too.

"I'm in," I said, and dropped my baggy swim trunks, leaving only my bike shorts.

"Hold on a minute," Jake said, looking disgruntled. "Somebody's got to drive the boards and the food. That's not fair, I'm the only one who doesn't get to go flying." He looked at me with just as much seriousness as he ever had on any of our missions. "You're riding with me," he ordered.

I grinned. I knew I _could _make him drive by himself, but there was just too much optimism in the air to be contradictory right now. I slipped my trunks back on and hopped into the passenger's seat. "See you chickens in the sand," I told the other three as they began to morph. Jake pulled out of my ridiculously long driveway and hit the highway.

He reached into his center console and threw on his aviator shades. He turned to smile broadly at me. His long, shaggy hair whipped in the wind. "Tell me this isn't awesome," he said. "Tell me this isn't what we fight for."

I searched briefly for a smart remark, then shrugged. I was just too happy to be a smart-ass. "This is it, exactly. I can't think of anything more perfect, dude."

A convertible full of hotties, all decked out in bikinis, pulled up next to us at the red light we were stopped at. I leaned out of the open window. "What's up? Any of you girls know the way to the beach?" They all started gushing simultaneously – there wasn't anyone on the planet who didn't know who me and Jake were. I laughed as the light turned green and Jake gunned it, leaving behind the girls and their shouts of, "Oh my god!" and, "Jake and Marco? _So _hot!"

As we pulled into the beach's parking lot, a little of Jake's levity left him. "So Marco, you think you can do me a favor?" he asked.

"On a day like today? Maybe," I joked.

"Could you maybe throw a party at your place tonight?" I stared – Jake was the definition of the term _low-key_. I guess he realized how that sounded, so he said, "Not like the one you threw the last time we got back, with the politicians and movie stars. Something small and intimate – just us and the families."

In response, I got on my cell and called Cherie, my party planner. I told her what we wanted and told her where my black book with my contact info was located, and hung up. "Done. Eight o'clock, party on, Garth."

"Cool," he said, grabbing the boards out of the back of his "vehicle."

"This bucket of rust is going to explode with you in it one day," I said of his Bronco as I snagged the coolers out of it. "Jake Berenson, Hero of Earth, killed by his POS car!" I read the imaginary headline.

"Whatever. Calvin's got some years left in him," he said, stomping up the dunes toward the water.

"You named your truck Calvin?" I snickered.

"Yeah. He's got personality, like Calvin. You know, from Calvin and Hobbes?" he said defensively. I just made a crazy motion at my temple.

I started spreading out the towels as Jake planted his and Rachel's boards into the sand. "You gonna wait for Rachel before you hit the water?" I asked, laying out and snagging a beer from the cooler.

"Yeah," he said, getting his own beer. "She'd kill me if I didn't." He twisted off the top of the drink and flipped it into the cooler. He settled onto his towel and took a sip, and made a horrified face. "Are you kidding?" he asked, gesturing to the bottle. "This stuff is _horrible_!"

I laughed as I realized this was the first beer Jake had ever tried. "It's an acquired taste, my man." He responded by dumping it out on the sand and getting a Coke out of the ice chest.

We laid out for a little while, just enjoying the good old Earth sunshine. People pointed and took pictures, but no one invaded our privacy. "Think they're scared of us?" he asked.

"They're scared of _you_," I said. "Who wouldn't be intimidated by Jake the Yeerk Killer? You're the leader of a band of freedom fighters who use alien morphing technology in battle."

Jake looked disturbed, then shrugged. "Whatever. At least we don't get mobbed like we're movie stars or something."

I looked at him in amusement. "I _do _get mobbed. I _am _a movie star. I told you, it's you they're afraid of." We hung out in silence for a while, until Jake complained about the heat and started to peel out of the top half of his wetsuit. He was stopped by a thought-speech shout from above.

(Leave it on, Jake!) Rachel called. (I'm coming!) He looked up, and instinctively ducked as a huge bald eagle swooped down, wings at full stretch, and landed beside him on his towel.

"Come on! That's not funny!" he shouted like an angry parent as Rachel cackled and Tobias and Cassie swooped down behind her, landing at a more respectable distance away from us. They all began to demorph – Cassie made it look awesome as she transitioned from osprey to human, starting at her feet and slowly rising, like she was a glass filling up with liquid. Tobias and Rachel just looked disturbing – Rachel less so, since her mostly-black wetsuit was pretty close to the eagle's natural color.

Once she was demorphed, Rachel yelled, "Let's do it!" She snatched her board out of the sand and sprinted at full tilt toward the ocean. Jake gave Cassie a hug and kissed her.

"You okay with me going surfing?" Jake asked her softly. She smiled at him and nodded.

"I was going to go dolphin and go out there with you. You mind?" she asked.

He smiled like he'd won the Super Bowl. "Nothing would make me happier."

Tobias settled on the towel Jake had vacated, and I waved at the lovebirds. "Would you two get out of here? You're blocking the rays!" I said, but I made sure they knew I was kidding. They walked off hand in hand, and Tobias seemed to reconsider laying out.

"Think I'll go with them," he said. "Come on, Marco."

"Nah, I'm cool," I said, but the seed had been planted, and Tobias knew it. He waited expectantly, and I took a few extra seconds after I'd made up my mind, just to annoy him. "All right, KFC, let's go. Dolphin time," I conceded, already looking forward to the playful dolphin mind that was perfectly suited to my mood. I resisted the urge to run myself as we made our way to the water.


	36. Chapter 35 Epilogue, Part 2

Chapter 35

**Rachel**

I had paddled out a good hundred yards when I did a one-eighty, turning to face back toward the beach. I saw Jake paddling out, but I also saw Cassie, Marco, and Tobias in the surf, staying about waist deep in the water. Through the ocean spray, I saw them first grow taller, then fall forward into the surf. I grinned as I realized what they were doing – going dolphin to play with me and Jake.

Jake reached me and slapped my outstretched hand, then sat up on his board and settled in to watch the set and choose a wave. Most of the other surfers were farther down the shore, catching the truly epic breakers, but I'd decided to start out slow. Surfing wasn't riding a bike – I knew it would take a couple of runs before I totally got my skills back.

I don't know if it was the surf, or the sun, or the fact that I knew that any minute, three dolphins that were my friends were going to be racing below me. Maybe it was all of those things, plus the fact that we'd saved the world again. I'm not sure, but I felt like my heart was full. I was totally and completely happy. Jake was the closest one to me, so I smiled and decided that he'd have to be the one to suffer for it. "Hey, Jake?" I said. He looked at me, and his expression must have been a mirror image of my own. He looked simply happy to be alive. Totally content. "I love you, cousin," I told him.

He didn't stutter even for a second. He just flashed his own white smile at me. "I love you too, Rach." His smile faltered for a half of a second, then returned full-force. "You know, I think that's the first time we've said that," he said, thoughtfully, but obviously pleased.

I felt like my smile was going to become a permanent part of my face. "Yeah, but you always knew it," I told him. "I know I did." He nodded, but before he could reply, and explosion happened a couple of feet away from his board. A nine foot long, gray missile shot over both him and me. A gray missile wearing a grin. Two more followed right behind it, and I laughed in pure joy.

(Whooooo!) came Cassie's thought-speech cry. Mild Cassie, always the most reserved among us, was leading the psycho-dolphin parade. (_Man_! I forgot how much _fun _that is!) Marco and Tobias' thought-speech laughter joined with me and Jake's human laughter. I watched them as they flew out to sea, breaking the water barrier and crisscrossing through the sky. I felt the sea surge underneath me as I watched them, and heard Jake let out his own cry of exultation.

I watched as he paddled ahead of the massive wave, and lost sight of him as it crested. I shifted my eyes down the rolling pipeline, and saw him emerge at the end of it, blasting down the wave as if he were shot out of a cannon. My own competitive nature took over, and I looked behind me, trying to find a suitable wave to either match or top his ride. A moment later, I was up on the board, grooving into a solid wall of water and heading toward Jake's own final destination. He ducked under the surface as my larger wave took me almost directly over the top of him, and I dove off of the board before the sudden stop of the wave could throw me. I broke the surface and saw him treading water a few dozen feet away, and the look we shared said the same thing – '_Nice! We still got it!_'

I felt a solid nudge at the small of my back, and a bit of fear hit me. Getting hit in open water was rarely either an accident or a good thing. I relaxed as I saw the grinning bottlenose dolphin, and laughed. Even though his dolphin morph was identical to Cassie's, I knew instinctively that it was Tobias. "Nice ride, right?" I asked him. Instead of answering in thought-speech, he threw his dolphin head back and let out a chittering, dolphin exclamation. I laughed and motioned him to come with me as I paddled to shore.

Once he was close enough to shore to be considered beached, he began demorphing. I waited patiently until he was fully human, then held his hand as I carried my board to shore. A quick glance behind me told me that Jake was resetting for another ride, but I was ready to settle down and spend some quality time with Tobias. We got back to the beach towels and coolers that marked our camp, and we settled in to relax. I watched the water, seeing Jake catch another towering swell, until Tobias lightly turned my face to his. I smiled and let him kiss me, feeling as if the world were just perfect. We stayed connected like that for a few minutes, until I heard the shutter-click of a camera a little too close.

I turned toward the road, and saw a typical camera-jockey half-hidden behind a dune behind us. He was snapping pictures like mad. "You mind?" I asked him, trying to put an edge into my voice and not completely succeeding. He got the hint, though, and took off. I guess he knew about my grizzly morph. Tobias laughed.

"Can you leave him alone? I'm trying to kiss you – you could wait until I'm done to scare the paparazzi," he teased.

"Shut up," I told him good-naturedly, and locked him up into another kiss.

The next thing I knew, someone was clearing their throat. I broke from Tobias to again mildly threaten someone, but I saw it was Marco, looking extremely amused. Jake and Cassie were right behind him, arms around each other's waists. "I was just going to say that we should probably get going, if we're going to clean up in time for the party," Marco said, with a slightly obnoxious grin still in place.

"No parties, Marco," I said, more than a little distracted. Surprisingly, it was Jake that looked sheepish.

"Sorry, Rachel, but we probably _should _head out. I was the one who asked Marco to set up a coming-home party." I gave him a disbelieving look, and he explained further. "Not like last time – no superstars or other people we don't know. Just our families. I thought it would be good," he said, and I laughed at the uncertainty in his voice.

"Okay, I'm not going to kill you," I told him lightheartedly. "As long as it's just the families, I can live with it. Besides, I'm _starving_," I said, and I realized it was true. Tobias opened the lid of the cooler and offered me a saran-wrapped sandwich. I hesitated. "No, I think I'd rather wait. I've had enough of that kind of food to last me a lifetime. I want some real cooking."

Marco laughed, and offered both Tobias and I each a hand to help us up. "Well, if it's gourmet cooking you want, gourmet cooking you shall have," he said. "We're going to have some killer food at the party."

Tobias grinned as we all hiked towards Jake's piece of garbage Bronco. I didn't know about everyone else, but I was a little too tired to morph and fly home. "Be sure to invite Ax, if he's still on-planet," Tobias said. Marco grinned again.

"Already done, extra-crispy," he told Tobias. I automatically started to tell Marco to knock it off, but he beat me to it. "I know, I know, he's not a bird. I'm still going to have my fun." We all started to pile into the truck, and Tobias said something that made me feel better.

"I know we haven't finished it yet, but I'm still waiting on my paycheck for my first month's work on your movie, Marco. I'll expect that by the end of the night." I laughed hysterically as Marco stuttered, trying to make excuses as to why that wasn't fair, and Jake peeled out of the parking lot.


End file.
